‘The Deal Is Done’: NDP Breaks With Liberals, Opening Early Election Prospects

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh speaks in the Foyer of the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on June 13, 2024. The Canadian Press/ Patrick Doyle

The NDP has announced it’s pulling out of its agreement keeping the minority Liberals in power, opening the possibility the government could fall before the next scheduled election in 2025.

“The deal is done,” NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said in a social media post on Sept. 4, adding he notified Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the same day.

Singh said the Liberals are “too beholden to corporate interests” and that only the NDP can stop the Conservatives.

“Together, we can and will stop Conservative cuts, we can deliver relief and restore hope, fix health care, build homes you can afford, stop price gouging,” he said.

Trudeau reacted by saying he hopes the NDP will remain focused on how to deliver for Canadians.

“I’m focused on Canadians, I'll let the other parties focus on politics,” he said during a press conference in Newfoundland and Labrador on Sept. 4.

The major announcement came a few days after Tory Leader Pierre Poilievre made public a letter he sent to Singh, asking him to break his agreement with Trudeau.

Poilievre said Singh had promised the agreement would make life more affordable for Canadians while the opposite had occurred.

Poilievre’s office reacted to Singh’s announcement calling it a “media stunt.”

“Singh refuses to state whether the NDP will vote with non-confidence to cause a carbon tax election at the first chance,” said spokesperson Sebastian Skamski in a statement.

The NDP entered a supply and confidence agreement with the Liberals in March 2022, providing support on confidence votes in the House of Commons in exchange for prioritizing items on the NDP’s agenda.

Most of the items in the agreement have been fulfilled to date, including implementing dental care, tabling a pharmacare bill, and passing legislation banning replacement workers during strikes and lockouts. The deal was scheduled to last until June 2025, at the end of the spring parliamentary session.

The NDP will not be bound to support the Liberals in confidence votes when the new sitting starts on Sept. 16.

The first set confidence vote pertains to the budget, which will be tabled in early spring 2025. Otherwise the ruling party can designate certain votes in the House as confidence votes, and opposition MPs can also table non-confidence motions.

The passing of a non-confidence vote typically leads to the resignation of the government and the holding of an election.