Canada’s first budget bill in two years is stalling, with major parties arguing and more than 100 other bills on hold, a stalemate that could be the trigger for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s call for an early election.
Trudeau’s Liberal Party has a minority of seats in the lower house and must rely on other parties to govern. They complain that the Conservatives, the largest opposition party, are blocking the passage of key bills while the epidemic is still raging. “In recent months, the Conservatives have been stalling legislation to the point where their tactics have become obstructionist. This must end,” Liberal leader Pablo Rodriguez said in a statement Thursday. Insiders say it’s clear Trudeau’s patience is starting to run out. Moreover, the budget for liberal spending is seen as a strong springboard for an election later this year, if most Canadians have been vaccinated by the time of the election.
Trudeau has pledged to vaccinate every Canadian who needs it by the end of September, and his budget includes spending an additional C$100 billion ($81.4 billion) over the next three years. A poll by pollster Leger this week showed public support for the Liberals at 34 percent, compared with 28 percent for the Conservatives, enough to keep Trudeau in power but still not win a majority. Other polls, however, show that Trudeau will win outright.
With the exception of the budget bill, all 110 bills before the House have yet to pass. Bills on hold include Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions target, an epidemic mitigation measure introduced last September, a ban on conversion therapy, billions of dollars in spending for November’s fall economic statement, a ban on assault guns and a measure to relax voting rules during the epidemic.
Lori Turnbull, a professor of political science at Dalhousie University in Halifax, said, “The minority government should have fully anticipated that the opposition would use the tools at its disposal.”
Liberals have complained that the Conservatives are using parliamentary procedure to delay debate on secondary issues, wasting time normally spent on major bills. But House Conservative Leader Gérard Deltell said his party was doing its part and denied charges of deliberate obstruction. “This is a serious matter. The people of our party have a say and they have taken advantage of that right.”
A Liberal source said parliament was on the verge of dysfunction. The source said:If you keep putting up barriers, the question arises, is this parliament working properly, and if not, what is the answer?”
An obvious choice for Trudeau would be to go to the office of the governor general, who represents Canada’s head of state, Queen Elizabeth, and demand that Parliament be dissolved on the grounds that the opposition has made it ungovernable. Liberals point out that this is exactly what former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper did in 2008. Professor Turnbull said: “If they (Liberals) demand dissolution, they get what they want, and they can say: ‘The Conservatives are blocking us, we have to have an election.'”
But in public, Trudeau has insisted he does not want an early election, especially as much of Canada is battling a third wave of coronavirus infection. Most Canadians also believe going to the polls during the outbreak would not only be unsafe, but would result in an unfair vote.
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