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 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.
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