The Bloc Québécois Party says it is ready to negotiate with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s party to win support for a vote of confidence following the end of the governing and confidence agreement between the Liberal government and the New Democrats.
The Quebec-based Bloc says that support won’t come cheap, and Yves-François Blanchet’s sovereigntist party has already drawn up a list of demands.
In an interview ahead of Monday’s caucus in the Outaouais region, Block House Leader Alain Therrien said he was pleased the party had regained the balance of power.
“Our goal remains the same, but the means to get there will be much easier,” Therrien said. “We negotiate, we pursue Quebec’s interests. Our balance of power has definitely improved.”
He called the situation an “opportunity” now that the Bloc has an opportunity after New Democratic Party Leader Jagmeet Singh scrapped the confidence and supply agreement between the two parties last week, giving the Liberals a true minority government.
New Democratic Party Leader Jagmeet Singh’s decision last week to withdraw from the confidence and supply agreement creates an opportunity for the bloc, the party said.
While Pierre Poirievre’s Conservative party has promised multiple confidence votes in the hope of calling a general election, the Bloc’s strategy is to avoid a general election and use its newfound position to gain what it believes is in Quebec’s interests.
A Bloc party strategist, granted anonymity by The Canadian Press because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said bluntly that the NDP has formally handed the balance of power back to the Bloc party.
The Bloc is naturally assuming that a federal election, in about a year or less, will result in a majority government for Poirievre’s Conservative Party, which has been rising sharply in the polls for more than a year and has also led in other Canadian provinces for more than a year.
The source added that Quebec will not be as critical to the victory this time around, as the Bloc is hoping to take seats from the Liberals there and the Conservatives are hoping to gain seats from the Bloc.
“It will happen whether Quebec is involved or not,” the source said.[The Conservatives] We have a 20-point lead across all of Canada except Quebec, and that’s not going to change… [Conservative] The vote is final.”
Genevieve Tellier, a political scientist at the University of Ottawa, said it’s not surprising the Bloc would see it as great news that an agreement that allowed the Liberals to govern without listening to their demands has been scrapped.
“The bloc only has influence in minority governments, no matter what government they are in,” she explained. “In majority governments, it becomes even harder to justify the bloc’s existence, because like any other party, the bloc can oppose and hold the government to account, but it cannot influence government policy.”
The Bloc’s priority is gaining royal recommendation for Bill C-319, which seeks to raise pensions for people aged 65 to 74 to the same level as those aged 75 and over.
The rules state that any budget bill introduced by a member of Parliament, as in this case, must receive the Royal Recommendation before the third reading, and if this is not possible, the Speaker of the House of Commons will end debate and reject the bill.
The Bloc also wants Quebec to gain more powers on immigration issues, particularly in the area of temporary foreign workers, and to recover funds it says are owed to the province.
The demands on old age pensions and immigration powers are “simple, achievable and clear”, Therrien said.
“It’s obviously going to be on the agenda. I can assure you that I will be the one negotiating,” he added.
The coalition also wants funding cuts to oil companies, increased health care funding for the province as requested by the premier, and a halt or elimination of Ottawa’s infringement of provincial jurisdiction.