'VOTING NO:' Singh stands firm on Conservatives' non-confidence motion

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OTTAWA — He’s not budging.

Speaking to reporters ahead of question period, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh reaffirmed his position against Conservative efforts to topple the minority Liberals via a confidence motion tabled Tuesday in the House of Commons.

“The Conservatives’ vision for Canada is one where they cut and gut health care,” Singh told reporters in the House foyer.

“They want to cut pharmacare, they want to cut dental care, they want to cut health care and privatize it, so their corporate buddies can make money off the pain of people.”

Singh said the NDP wants to fix programs the Tories want to eliminate.

“We will be voting no to the Conservative motion, we will be voting no to Conservative cuts,” he said.

The Liberals, Singh said, are far too weak to be a match for the Conservatives in a general election — adding the NDP is the only party capable of standing up to the government and that his party’s byelection victory in Winnipeg proves it.

He said that while things are bad under the Trudeau Liberals, he maintains a Conservative government would be even worse.

Tory Leader Pierre Poilievre tabled his promised non-confidence motion in the House on Tuesday, urging fellow opposition MPs to reflect on the “promise” of Canada, topple the government and trigger an election.

“But that promise, after nine years of the NDP-Liberal prime minister, is broken,” he said in the House on Tuesday morning.

“Everything costs more with two million people lined up at food banks because they cannot afford food — this is a record-smashing number.”

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Canadians are taking an increasingly dim view of the government as the Trudeau Liberals continue their monumental dive in the polls to the benefit of the Poilievre Conservatives.

But without support from either the NDP or Bloc Quebecois, the Conservatives’ motion will almost certainly fail.

“Housing costs have doubled, so that two-thirds of young people believe they will never be able to afford a home. That has never happened in Canadian history,” Poilievre said in his speech.

The next federal election, Poilievre maintains, will be a referendum on Canada’s contentious carbon tax, which he said does little but add to the misery of Canadians.

“Here’s the existential choice: Do we go to a 61-cent-per-litre carbon tax, making us among the highest-taxed fuel in all the world, a tax that will grind our economy to a halt?” Poilievre said.

“We will fight climate change and protect our economy with technology, not taxes.”

bpassifiume@postmedia.com
X: @bryanpassifiume