“Canadian Politics”

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first budget has accomplished a near-impossible feat in Ottawa.

It has united every opposition party across the political spectrum in an outright rejection.

The Conservatives, the Bloc Québécois, the NDP, and the Greens have all declared they will vote against the fiscal plan, branding it as costly, directionless, and profoundly out of touch with the needs of Canadians.

There’s a spectrum of terms used to describe MPs who cross the floor. But history shows us there’s one word that doesn’t always stick when Canadian politicians shed one party affiliation for another: re-electable.

Jaws dropped in Ottawa following the revelation that longtime Conservative Chris d’Entremont is joining the federal Liberal caucus — with Prime Minister Mark Carney hinting others could follow.

Floor-crossing is a political phenomenon dating back to Confederation. But a dive into the record books shows it has increasingly come at an electoral price.

If Canada’s track record in appeasing terrorists is any indication, no good can come out of the federal government’s recognition of a Palestinian state. The last time Canada’s leaders rewarded terrorism, we almost lost the country.

We’ve never discussed this aspect of our constitutional history. For some odd reason, it doesn’t seem to be a subject anyone wants to broach, let alone debate in the marketplace of ideas. Verboten. Hands off. And I’m wondering whether this lack of discussion led to Prime Minister Carney making an inadequately informed decision.

Prime Minister Mark Carney insists the federal budget was crafted to contain a number of measures championed by MPs from other parties, and that those olive branches will become apparent in the coming days.

With one MP already crossing the floor to join the Liberals, Carney now needs only two more votes, or abstentions, to pass his budget.

The unanswered question is whether any of those measures will convince enough opposition MPs that letting the budget pass is in their interests.

Nova Scotia MP Chris d’Entremont resigned from the Conservative caucus Tuesday — and he’s joining the Liberals.

In a statement disseminated by the Liberal Party, d’Entremont said he decided to leave the Conservatives after “serious consideration and thoughtful conversations with constituents.”

“I came to a clear conclusion: there is a better path forward for our country — and a better path forward for Acadie-Annapolis,” he said.

h/t angry_old_man_2

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said days before the release of the federal budget that he’s willing to work with the Liberals to draft an “affordable” budget that his party could support.

“I’m willing to work all through the night—tonight and tomorrow—to come up with an affordable budget that will make an affordable life for Canadians. But we will not vote to raise grocery prices and increase housing costs as the Liberals have done over the last decade,” Poilievre told reporters during a Nov. 2 press conference in Ottawa.

The NDP is not ruling out the possibility that some or all of its seven MPs could abstain when the minority Liberal government’s budget is put to a vote in the House of Commons.

The government has warned of the possibility of a snap election unless at least one other party steps forward to allow approval of the budget, which will be tabled Tuesday.

NDP Interim Leader Don Davies said it’s possible that some NDP MPs will opt to vote neither for nor against the budget.

As the federal government prepares to release a budget expected to see major new investments and spending along with a higher deficit, Canadians say they’re most concerned about measures to reduce their cost of living, according to a new poll.

The Ipsos poll conducted exclusively for Global News found 42 per cent of respondents want the budget, set to be tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, to prioritize helping with the increasing cost of everyday expenses.

We can reliably count on the latter not the former.

With just days to go until the Liberal government introduces its much-anticipated federal budget, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre won’t say whether his party will strike down the legislation — instead insisting he needs to read the document before deciding.

“I don’t have telepathic powers to tell you what’s in it,” Poilievre said in an interview on Rosemary Barton Live airing Sunday morning. “If it were to bring down the cost of living — an affordable budget for an affordable living is something that I support.”

According to Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer, the Conservatives believe the Liberals are preparing to table a budget that will almost certainly be voted down. Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne is set to unveil the Liberals’ first official budget next week, and early rumours — particularly through Liberal-friendly media outlets like CBC — suggest that it will feature targeted investments for Canadian workers impacted by ongoing US–Canada trade disputes. An area where Carney has been “elbows down,” demonstrating immense difficulty securing trade terms favourable to Canada. The budget is also alleged to focus on housing and the military.

If Canadians have to swallow some unpleasant budget medicine next week, most Canadians would rather see Mark Carney, not Pierre Poilievre, holding the spoon, new polling from Abacus Data is showing.

But the same polling also shows that both leaders should be careful about tipping the country into an election with that budget. The Liberal prime minister is still more popular than the Conservative leader, but their parties are tied in the polls and there’s no guarantee that Donald Trump would move votes as he did in the spring election.

OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said the sacrifices made by the current generation have not been seen since the Second World War, in a speech on Thursday evening, made in rebuttal to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s upcoming budget.

Poilievre addressed a room of young conservatives and other supporters gathered in Toronto. The event was organized in response to Carney’s speech last week where he cautioned Canadians that they should prepare for “sacrifices” as his government put the finishing touches on a budget that attempts to both respond to the ongoing Canada-U.S. trade war and rein in government spending.

The Conservative and NDP caucuses are grappling with what to do about the upcoming federal budget and whether they want to be part of an effort to trigger an election by voting it down, multiple sources told CBC News.

Senior Conservative sources say the party’s leadership does not want an election right now, but they are also opposed to voting for the new Liberal government’s first budget given the potential reputational risk of backing Prime Minister Mark Carney and an agenda they simply don’t support.