Conservatives opt against their own non-confidence motion, so privilege debate continues

The latest attempt to bring down the minority Liberal government has stalled after the Conservatives blocked their own non-confidence motion from going ahead.

On Friday, the Tories released the text of a motion they planned to bring to the House of Commons today, quoting NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s criticism of the Liberals in a bid to get his caucus to vote against the government.

But members of Parliament need to provide unanimous consent for the opposition motion to proceed, in order to pause debate on a matter of privilege that has held up almost all other business in the House for two months.

When Liberal House leader Karina Gould moved a motion to adjourn debate on that filibuster this morning the Conservatives said no.

That privilege debate relates to a Conservative demand that the Liberals provide unredacted documents about allegations of misspending at a now-defunct green technology fund.

The Conservatives have said they will only end that debate if the Liberals provide the documents or the NDP agrees to vote non-confidence in the government.

Two Conservative opposition motions declaring non-confidence in the government were defeated in September when the Bloc Québécois and the NDP voting against them.

The Bloc has since pledged to work with the other opposition parties to defeat the government after the Liberals refused to adopt a Bloc bill to raise old age security payments for seniors under age 75.

However, Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet said his party would only vote in favour of non-confidence motions that are deemed to be in the best interests of Quebec.

Singh has said his party will take each non-confidence vote on a case-by-case basis, and has said that while his party is ready for an election it does not want to push for one immediately.

By Dylan Robertson