Pierre Poilievre tries to bait Justin Trudeau into forcing an election over carbon levy increase

 

ByStephanie LevitzDeputy Ottawa Bureau Chief

Alex BallingallOttawa Bureau

Wednesday, March 20, 2024

OTTAWA—Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is baiting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to call an election, as he threatens to introduce a motion of non-confidence in the Liberals’ minority government over the next scheduled increase in the federal carbon price.

It’s a gambit that’s unlikely to trigger an election since the opposition NDP has pledged to prop up the government as long as their parliamentary alliance holds. But the Conservatives are trying to keep political pressure on Trudeau’s Liberals ahead of the April 1 escalation in the government’s central policy to fight climate change, when the national minimum carbon price is set to rise from $65 per tonne of greenhouse gas emissions, to $80. The cash rebates Ottawa sends to households where the federal price applies — including in Ontario — are also set to go up. 

“I’m giving Trudeau one last chance to spike his hike,” Poilievre said in a public speech to his caucus on Parliament Hill Wednesday. 

“I’m announcing that if Trudeau does not declare today an end to his forthcoming tax increases on food, gas and heat, that we will introduce a motion of non-confidence in the prime minister.”

Poilievre’s motion — tabled for a potential vote this week — says the House of Commons should declare non-confidence in the Liberal government over the carbon price increase, and call for Parliament “to be dissolved so Canadians can vote in a carbon tax election.”

By convention, if a majority of MPs declare non-confidence in a sitting government, the prime minister is expected to call for an election.

Referring to the campaigns of 2015, 2019 and 2021, Trudeau responded: “An election on the price on pollution? We had three, and we won them all.”

“Mr. Speaker, then he should not be afraid to have one more,” Poilievre shot back. 

Trudeau’s minority Liberals currently govern through an arrangement with the New Democrats, who are voting with them on confidence matters in exchange for action on their key priorities. Like the Liberals, the federal NDP has championed carbon pricing as a key tool in the fight against climate change. On Wednesday, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and his 24 MPs voted with the Bloc Québécois and governing Liberals to defeat a Conservative motion calling for the cancellation of the April 1 carbon price increase. 

https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/pierre-poilievre-tries-to-bait-justin-trudeau-into-forcing-an-election-over-carbon-levy-increase/article_44c7daa8-e6cb-11ee-8d67-bff854f414a2.html