Wednesday September 4, 2024 | VICTORIA, BC
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has ended the Supply and Confidence Agreement that was signed with the Liberal government in March 2022.
The governing Liberal government has been led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau since 2015 (elections in 2015, 2019, and 2021).
While the NDP has aligned their House of Commons support with the Liberal government through the pandemic recovery phase over the past two years, at some point the strategic political marriage had to come apart in order for the NDP to run their own distinct election campaign by 2025.
“I have ripped up the supply and confidence agreement,” said Singh on social today. The NDP leader said that “Canadians are battling for the future of the middle class”.
“The Liberals are too weak, too selfish and too beholden to corporate interests to stop the Conservatives and their plans to cut. But the NDP can,” said Singh in his social media video with the House of Commons in Ottawa as the backdrop.
Economy getting better?
The timing of this NDP announcement may have been aligned with the latest (third of three so far) reductions of the Bank of Canada’s policy interest rate in 2024; the interest rate is now 4.25%.
In reality, an interest rate reduction does not directly help most Canadians or small businesses who are struggling, unless they have a fixed-rate mortgage or line of credit or loan.
Inflation over the past two years has dug deep into the pockets of most Canadians. The damage of continued pressured interest rate hikes during 2022-2023 have done their intended damage to slow down inflation.
Next election:
The next federal election is currently scheduled with Elections Canada for October 20, 2025.
Will there be an election soon?
“An election is coming in the next year, hopefully not until next fall,” said Trudeau in a press conference in Newfoundland today. “We need to continue for people at these challenging times,” says Trudeau.
Confidence votes:
If the election comes sooner than October 2025 there will need to be a confidence vote in the House of Commons in which the Liberals lose.
The NDP are probably not planning to vote non-confidence too soon. They probably still want more time to build up their campaign fund finances.
NDP critique:
“The fact is, the Liberals are too weak, too selfish and too beholden to corporate interests to fight for people,” Singh said in a video address to Canadians today. “They cannot stop the Conservatives. But we can.”
Singh laid out the coming choice Canadians will make, saying it will be between the Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives and their “planned cuts” —which Singh calls “the greatest threat to middle class Canadians” — and “the hope and relief offered by the NDP”.
Vancouver Island landscape:
Here on Vancouver Island the federal NDP currently hold six of the seven federal seats:
- Randall Garrison (Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke) / not seeking re-election
- Alistair MacGregor (Cowichan-Malahat-Langford)
- Laurel Collins (Victoria)
- Rachel Blaney (North Island – Powell River) / not seeking re-election
- Gord Johns (Courtenay-Alberni)
- Lisa Marie Barron (Nanaimo-Ladysmith)
Four of those six MPs are seeking re-election.
The seventh seat on Vancouver Island is held by Elizabeth May in Saanich-Gulf Islands. The NDP will be running Colin Plant as their NDP candidates in Saanich-Gulf Islands, when the time comes.
In Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke NDP candidate Maja Tait has been prepping in the wings for the past year.
Conservative leader in Nanaimo today:
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre will speak to media today in Nanaimo. Poilievre has been spending a lot of time on Vancouver Island this year, perhaps signaling the vulnerability they perceive for the NDP in their six-seat stronghold.
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