Prime Minister Mark Carney has said he would not “pursue” a coalition with the far-left NDP, distancing himself from his predecessor, former prime minister Justin Trudeau, despite leading a minority government in the House of Commons.
During his first press conference after winning the election, Carney outlined his government’s priorities and vowed not to form a formal coalition with the NDP, which nearly collapsed and secured only seven parliamentary seats.
When asked if he would be “pursuing” a formal governing pact of “any kind” with the NDP, Carney simply said “no.”
“We campaigned on a very clear set of objectives, of very clear policies to back those up, and we received the highest number of votes in Canadian history,” he said. “Yes, it is not quite a majority, but the highest number of votes.”
Notably, due to the rising population under Trudeau via immigration, the election had the highest number of eligible voters, and the Conservatives received the highest number of votes in the party’s history.
Carney noted his party also received majorities in seven of the 10 provinces, suggesting that Canadians voted for him and not the recently resigned NDP leader Jagmeet Singh’s party. The NDP have lost official party status in the House of Commons.
He recognized that as a minority government, he would have to work with opposition parties to get things done, but remained confident that his platform would garner that support from the other parties.
“By definition, in Parliament, we will need to get majority support to pass legislation,” Carney said. “But this is legislation that Canadians, or at least we will be putting forth, legislation that’s consistent with our platform and consistent with the requirements of the time.“
He appealed to the roots of the NDP as a worker’s party by noting some of his goals rely on “supporting workers” who are impacted by U.S. tariffs including auto workers.
“All the dollars from our tariffs are going to support workers fighting hard for our auto sector, all our sectors, in these negotiations with the Americans and making sure that companies act in true partnership as well in maintaining employment and investment in Canada,” he said. “and if not, there will be consequences for those companies.”
During the press conference, he listed several policies ripped from the Conservative platform, including being tough on crime and “making it harder” for criminals to be granted bail.