Singh Says He'll Back Liberals in Non-Confidence Vote

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh gives remarks during a press conference in Toronto on Sept. 5, 2024. The Canadian Press/Christopher Katsarov

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he will back the federal Liberals in the upcoming non-confidence motion that Conservatives plan to table next week.

“New Democrats will vote against Pierre Poilievre’s motion,” Singh said in a Sept. 19 post on the X platform.

“The future of Canada and the future of the middle class are too important. We’re not going to play Pierre Poilievre’s games.”

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said on Sept. 18 that he plans to put forward a motion that reads, “The House has no confidence in the Prime Minister and the Government,” to be voted on Sept. 25.

Poilievre said the decision to keep the minority Liberal government in power would be up to the NDP and that a copy of the motion had been emailed to the party. Poilievre called on Singh to announce his position on the motion ahead of the vote.

If the non-confidence motion passes successfully, it would trigger a fall election. If it fails, Parliament will carry on as usual.

The Liberals currently hold 153 of the 338 Parliament seats and would need support from the 25 NDP MPs or 33 Bloc Quebecois MPs to defeat the motion.

Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet said on Sept. 18 that his party will vote against the motion, saying it essentially amounts to replacing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with Poilievre. Current public opinion surveys show that if an election was called today, the Conservatives would likely win a majority government.

Earlier in the day, Blanchet had told his caucus that the party would not support a non-confidence motion unless “I get the impression that the Liberals won’t be inclined to give us what we want.” He said he expected to benefit from support for the Liberals on Bloc priorities like increasing pension for seniors.

On Sept. 4, Singh announced his party would be pulling out of its supply-and-confidence agreement with the Liberals, saying the Liberals were “too beholden to corporate interests.” Singh said that only the NDP could stop the Conservatives and bring relief and hope to Canadians, fixing health care, and building affordable homes.

He also said his party would decide how to vote on each issue on a case-by-case basis.

The Conservatives said on Sept. 19 that with the NDP planning to vote against the non-confidence motion, Singh has in effect pieced “his costly coalition” with the Liberals back together again, adding that Canadians want to have a new government to solve housing and other issues.

Before the NDP declared its position on the non-confidence vote, Liberal House leader Karina Gould said on Sept. 18 that if Singh wants to “carry on with a progressive agenda for Canadians,” he'd vote against the Conservatives’ motion.

Matthew Horwood and Noé Chartier contributed to this report.