The Trudeau government may survive its first confidence test of the Fall session next week after Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet indicated that his party won’t support the Conservatives proposed motion.
“Will the Bloc vote in favour of the Conservative motion next week? The answer is no,” Blanchet told reporters in French on Wednesday. “The motion contains absolutely nothing. It essentially says: Do you want to replace Justin Trudeau with Pierre Poilievre? The answer is no,” he said.
The Bloc leader said his party is “at the service of Quebecers,” not Conservatives.
“I’m not a Conservative. Conservative values are not Quebec values,” said Blanchet.
While the next fixed election date isn’t scheduled until October of next year, the Government House Leader’s office notified the Conservatives that their first opposition day motion could tentatively be Tuesday, with a vote taking place on Wednesday, Sept. 25.
The Conservatives responded by confirming that their motion would be that “the House has no confidence in the Prime Minister and the Government.”
If the motion was to pass, it would send Canada into an early election this fall.
NDP leader Jagmeet Singh announced an end to his NDP-backed coalition government with the Liberals earlier this month. The Conservatives vowed to force a non-confidence vote at the earliest opportunity in the fallout of Singh’s announcement.
However, the motion is now likely moot following Blanchet’s statements that his party won’t be supporting the motion.
Ahead of their byelection win of the Montreal-area riding of LaSalle––Émard—Verdun on Tuesday, the Bloc had indicated that it’s more interested in forcing the government to make decisions that will benefit Quebec in exchange for their support, rather than calling a general election.
The Bloc Québécois’ Louis-Philippe Sauvé took the riding with 28% of the vote, a monumental increase from their 2021 result in which they garnered 22.1% of total votes.
The result reflects a massive plunge in support for the Liberal party in a Quebec riding that has been safely held by the Liberals for nearly a decade. Since its creation in 2015, former Liberal cabinet minister David Lametti won the riding for the Liberals in three straight elections, never dropping below 42% support while his runner-up never eclipsed 30%.
Meanwhile, the NDP has said that going forward, the party will decide whether to prop up the Trudeau government on a vote-by-vote basis.
“We are ready to fight an election whenever it happens, and we’ll take the choice to Canadians,” Singh told reporters earlier this month.
“For any question around votes, we’re going to make that determination on a vote-by-vote basis. So we’re going to see what the government presents, and as an opposition party, we’ll look at it, and then we’ll make our decision.”
On a national level Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre currently has a lead of around 20 points over the Liberals in the polls.