NDP rips up supply and confidence deal with Liberals

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OTTAWA — After propping up the Trudeau Liberals for more than two years, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is pulling out of a controversial supply and confidence deal.

News broke over the noon-hour that the NDP leader would formalize the breakup Wednesday afternoon.

“Today, I notified the Prime Minister that I ripped up the supply and confidence agreement,” Singh said in a video statement released on social media.

“Canadians are fighting a battle for the future of the middle class.”

In an internal NDP memo obtained by The Toronto Sun, Singh accuses the Liberals of being “too weak, “too selfish” and too “beholden to corporate interests” to be a serious contender to the Conservatives in an upcoming election.

“(The Liberals) cannot be the change, they cannot restore the hope, they cannot stop the Conservatives,” Singh said in the video. “But we can.”

Instead of offering blanket support for every confidence vote in the House, the NDP will instead “approach every vote on its own merit.”

When asked about the development during an afternoon press conference in Newfoundland, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ducked the question — instead talking up a school lunch announcement he was promoting.

“We’re making investments that are going to be helping hundreds of thousands of kids across the country,” he told reporters.

“I’ll let others focus on politics, but I will point out that I really hope the NDP stays focused on how we can deliver for Canadians, as we have over the past years, rather than focusing on politics.”

In Nanaimo, B.C., Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre expressed skepticism that much will change after Singh’s announcement, dismissing it as a publicity stunt.

“If you’re serious about ending your costly carbon tax coalition with Trudeau, then commit today to voting for a carbon tax election at the earliest confidence vote in the House of Commons,” he told reporters during a press conference.

“That way we can have a carbon tax election, where Canadians will decide between the costly coalition of Trudeau and ‘Sell-out Singh,’ that tax your food, punish your work, take your money, double your housing costs and unleash crime and drugs on our streets, or common-sense Conservatives,  who will axe the tax, build the homes, fix the budget, and stop the crime.”

Poilievre said the timing of such a confidence vote is still up in the air as the calendar for the House’s fall sitting has yet to be finalized, but implied a confidence motion would be tabled early in the session.

The Liberals and NDP struck their supply and confidence agreement in March 2022, just months after  Trudeau was handed his second minority government.

Hammered out in secret inside 7 Rideau Gate — Canada’s official residence for visiting dignitaries and a popular site for quietly negotiating high-profile deals — the agreement was to keep the Liberals in power until 2025. In return, the government agreed to advance causes important to the NDP, including lower-cost childcare, labour reforms and a national dental plan.

Singh has come under increasing fire — from observers and members of his own party — over the deal, particularly as polls show that support for the Liberals is tanking.

Earlier this week, NDP MP Matthew Green said his party would be engaging in “tough conversations” over the future of the deal, implying it was time for the party to “revisit” the agreement, and that topic would be a subject of discussions at the party’s pre-session caucus meeting next week in Montreal.

Singh will speak with reporters about exiting the deal at a press conference Thursday in Toronto.