Poilievre keeps pressure on other parties to bring down Liberals as Tories plan fall agenda
Conservatives hold caucus meeting on Sunday as MPs set to return to the House
Pierre Poilievre is keeping the pressure on other opposition parties to bring down the Liberal government as Conservatives met Sunday to map out the party's strategy ahead of the fall sitting of the House of Commons.
MPs are returning to Ottawa on Monday, and the Conservative leader has said he would trigger a non-confidence vote at the earliest opportunity.
"Canadians cannot wait. They need to vote now for common sense Conservatives," Poilievre said in an address to his caucus on Sunday.
The House will have a different dynamic this fall after NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh backed out of his governing agreement with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberals — a move that makes an early election more likely.
Poilievre, whose party has a commanding lead in the polls, is eager to send Canadians to the ballot box this fall. But in order to bring down the minority government, the Conservatives would need the support of the New Democrats and Bloc Québécois.
"If Jagmeet Singh gets the chance, he will reverse himself once again and sell out the people to vote in favour of [the Liberal government]," Poilievre said Sunday.
"Singh needs to vote with us to trigger a carbon tax election now."
He used a similar tone in French to criticize the Bloc for supporting the Liberal government.
"The Bloc gets along with Justin Trudeau on every issue. That's the reason we call them the Bloc-Liberals," he said.
The NDP has said it would take a vote-by-vote approach to the fall sitting, while the Bloc seems to want to use its new-found leverage in the House to push its own priorities.
The return of the House of Commons isn't the only big political event taking place on Monday. Two federal byelections are being held in Montreal and Winnipeg.
The Conservatives are making a huge push to wrestle the Winnipeg riding of Elmwood—Transcona away from the NDP. A win in that riding could suggest Poilievre's message is resonating with voters. LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, a Montreal riding most recently held by former Liberal cabinet minister David Lametti, is seen as a crucial test for the Liberals.
The Conservatives already struck a huge blow to the Liberals in a Toronto byelection earlier this summer. Don Stewart, who introduced Poilievre before his caucus address on Sunday, won Toronto—St. Paul's for the Tories — a riding held by the Liberals for more than three decades.
Poilievre's speech on Sunday touched on many of the main points he's focused on since becoming Conservative leader. He pledged to cut the carbon tax and use federal funds for municipalities to incentivize more home construction. He also suggested that he would take a tough-on-crime approach should he form the government after the next election.
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