Interim Conservative Party Leader Candice Bergen says the Liberal-NDP agreement to support the Liberal government is “little more than backdoor socialism” and criticized the deal as a power grab for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“We already have seen Trudeau and his policy move further and further to the left. This is a man who wasn’t joking when he said he doesn’t think about monetary policy. This is a man that was not joking when he says he admires China’s basic dictatorship,” Bergen said during a press conference to address cost-of-living issues on March 22.
Trudeau announced earlier in the day that he has reached an agreement with NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh that will keep his minority Liberal government in power until 2025.
Trudeau said he promised to implement a national pharmacare and dental care plan in order to obtain the NDP support, as well as “doing more” on items that are already prominent on the Liberal agenda namely housing affordability, climate change policies, and First Nation reconciliation.
Trudeau said the deal is “about fulfilling the clear mandate Canadians gave Parliament by improving the way we do politics so we can act now to deliver good jobs, climate action, more affordable housing and childcare, a stronger middle class, and a better, more prosperous future for everyone.”
With the Liberals currently holding 159 of the seats in the House of Commons and the NDP 25, the two parties combined hold the majority of seats with 184 out of the total of 338.
During the last general election in September of 2021, the Liberals received 32.6 percent of the vote and the NDP 17.8 percent, for a combined total of 50.4 percent.
Oil and Gas
Bergen alleged that the phasing out or “decimation” of the Canadian oil and gas industry was one of the top priorities for the NDP that Trudeau agreed to.
“They are helping Russia,” she said.
Russia draws much of its wealth from hydrocarbons and maintains leverage over Europe by being its main natural gas provider.
A Conservative motion to build pipelines to the East Coast to help replace Europe’s dependency on Russian gas was defeated in the House of Commons by all other parties on March 21.
‘Stability’
Trudeau presented the NDP deal as a move towards greater stability and a solution to “polarization, dysfunction or obstruction” in Parliament.
“This is something that will allow us to ensure stability, cooperation, and predictability for Canadians in these times of unpredictability and uncertainty,” he said.
Conservative MP Gérard Deltell cast doubts on Trudeau’s stated goal of stability during the press conference alongside Bergen on March 22.
“How to trust this man who talks about stability when he called an electoral campaign nobody wanted in the middle of a pandemic?” Deltell said.
Trudeau dissolved the last Parliament with two years left to his minority government and the subsequent election brought little change to the House of Commons.
Deltell, an MP from Québec, also charged that the NDP and Liberals have centralizing tendencies when it comes to provincial autonomy.
“The NDP in its very nature is centralizing, it’s the very proof of socialism, which seeks to concentrate power in the state,” he said.
