The Conservative’s non-confidence motion to topple the Trudeau government and force a snap election was voted down in the House of Commons on Wednesday, as the NDP and Bloc Quebecois voted against the measure.
The motion was defeated by a vote of 211 to 120.
The outcome of the vote was unsurprising as both NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves Blanchet had publicly said they would not be supporting the Conservatives’ motion last week.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre used the first Opposition Day of Parliament’s fall sitting to present the motion before the House of Commons on Tuesday, which stated: “The House has no confidence in the Prime Minister and the Government.”
The motion comes on the heels of a turbulent summer for the Liberals.
The Trudeau government saw two major byelection losses, the NDP withdrawing its support from their coalition agreement and several high ranking Liberals announcing that they will be leaving the party, including the prime minister’s top campaign director.
These changes come in addition to Trudeau hitting a new rock bottom in the polls.
During the motion debate in the House on Tuesday, Poilievre blamed Canada’s high cost of living, the housing crisis and the growing drug overdose problems on the Trudeau government.
He said that Canadians are “suffering the pain of a brutal economy — the worst economy since the Great Depression” and offered an alternative Conservative platform to scrap the carbon tax, “build the homes, fix the budget and stop the crime.”
However, Liberal House Leader Karina Gould said that a Poilievre government wouldn’t be run any differently than when former prime minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative government were in power.
“What I recall when the Conservatives were in government was a country that was ashamed of what we were doing on the world stage, it was ashamed that we were not fighting climate change, and it was a country that was ashamed that we were putting forward divisive politics and not bringing people together,” said Gould.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said that his party would not support the Conservatives non-confidence motion, saying he won’t let Poilievre “call the shots.”
“Look to any province where Conservatives have been in power and look at the state of the health-care system, they will be in shambles because that is what Conservatives do. They cut health care,” said Singh.
Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-François Blanchet told reporters on Parliament Hill on Tuesday that his party would not be supporting the motion and would instead use its position within the minority government to benefit Quebec like pushing through Bill C-319, which would hike Old Age Security payouts by 10% for seniors between the ages of 65 and 74.
“What we are proposing is good for retired persons in Quebec but also in Canada. It’s good for milk, eggs and poultry producers in Quebec but also in Canada. That’s good for everybody,” said Blanchet.
