OTTAWA — The federal Liberals and New Democrats have finalized an agreement that if maintained, would keep Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government in power until 2025, in exchange for progress on longstanding NDP priorities, CTV News has learned.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has scheduled a media availability for 9 a.m. where he is expected to announce the deal has been brokered.
The deal, worked out by party leadership, was presented to Liberal and NDP MPs on Monday night for approval. The news was well received in the Liberal caucus, according to sources. And, according to a senior NDP source, that party caucus was not unanimously in support, though the majority was.
The agreement will see the NDP caucus prop up the government in future confidence votes and budgets, in exchange for progress on expanding national health care such as pharmacare and advancing a national dental care program.
The NDP source said there are other elements to the agreement on shared Liberal-NDP priorities such as commitments towards affordability, climate change, and reconciliation.
According to one Liberal source who attended axjmtzywn emergency caucus meeting on the subject on Monday night, the agreement is being referred to as “making Parliament work,” but essentially is a confidence-and-supply agreement.
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Given the Liberals are in a minority position, so long as this agreement is maintained, it will inject years of federal stability allowing Trudeau’s cabinet to continue advancing their priorities without concern of falling on a confidence vote.
Since 2019 when the Liberals were reduced to a minority, the NDP have often been the government’s main ally, voting to support their initiatives, but that support had never been formalized.
The senior NDP source told CTV News that the New Democrats are willing to support the Liberals so formally now for a host of reasons, including the post-pandemic exhaustion and uncertainty over the war in Ukraine and they feel it’s important to show parties can work together despite their differences. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh also has a scheduled media availability this morning, following the prime minister.
Given the last federal election was in 2021—seeing the Liberals maintain minority standing in the House of Commons— the next scheduled vote would happen in October 2025.
Reacting to the news of a potential deal late Monday night interim Conservative Leader Candice Bergen called the agreement “nothing more than a callous attempt by Trudeau to hold on to power,” and “backdoor socialism.”
“This is an NDP-Liberal attempt at government by blackmail. Nation-building is replaced by vote-buying; secret deal-making over parliamentary debate; and opportunism over accountability,” Bergen said.
The Conservative party will be electing its next leader in September, and should this Liberal-NDP deal go through, the victor would be facing their first few years in the job as leader of the Official Opposition.
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NDP leader Jagmeet Singh meets with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Thursday, Nov. 14, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
