MP explains his party's reason for breaking up with the Liberals

Photo: Parliament of Canada

South Okanagan-West Kootenay MP Richard Cannings.

I’ve been in Ottawa for a few weeks, since Parliament resumed sitting after its summer break.

It was a relaxing summer for most of us, but I want to acknowledge that for some it was full of anxiety and stress due to wildfires. The Slocan Valley in particular was on fire for many weeks, forcing several communities to evacuate for extended periods, and unfortunately some residents lost their homes.

I drove through the Slocan as soon as the evacuations were lifted and the highway opened, talking to local elected officials and residents. I want to express my thanks to the many firefighters, including volunteers from all over the province, professionals from B.C., Australia and other parts of the world, who worked so hard in extremely difficult situations to keep us safe and protect our homes.

As you have all heard, the (federal) NDP has ended its confidence and supply agreement with the Liberal government. Many have asked me why we did this and why we did it now. I think it would helpful to review why we entered into the agreement over two years ago.

At that time, the Liberals had been governing from a minority position for more than two years and showed little interest in cooperating with other parties. But in early 2022, we were in the throes of the COVID pandemic, Russia had just invaded Ukraine and both parties felt Canada needed stability in government to benefit all Canadians.

In return for support on confidence and supply motions—mostly select votes dealing with the budget and other fiscal matters—the government agreed to move forward with more than 20 NDP initiatives it had previously not supported, initiatives we knew would change the lives of Canadians for the better, including dental care for those who couldn’t afford to go to the dentist, pharmacare so every Canadian can afford to fill their prescriptions, affordable childcare, meaningful federal investments in truly affordable housing and labour laws that prohibit the use of replacement workers in labour disputes.

So why would we exit this agreement? Simply put, almost all of these initiatives are well underway or complete, so extending it would not meaningfully benefit Canadians. At the same time, we are entering an election year and the NDP needed to be clear it is a better alternative to the Liberal government.

As for the Conservatives, they would have never agreed to help Canadians in these ways and will do everything they can to undo all these new benefits Canadians now enjoy.

So, as far as parliamentary votes go, we are back to the situation we were in from 2019 through 2022, where the NDP and Bloc Quebecois chose whether to support the government on a vote-by-vote basis.

While we have little confidence the Liberal government will significantly improve matters for Canadians, we have absolutely no confidence in the Conservatives in that regard. So, it should be no surprise we will not vote for any Conservative confidence “games” such as we saw recently.

The Conservatives do not want Parliament to function and continued that “mischief,” blocking debate on legislation that would restore citizenship to “lost Canadians”, blocking debate on a long overdue bill to modernize our railways and ports and blocking legislation to move sexual assault cases in the Canadian Armed Forces out of military courts and into civilian courts.

These tactics are frustrating to everyone in the House of Commons, but I and my NDP caucus colleagues will continue working hard to make sure Canadians get all the supports they need and deserve in these difficult times.

Richard Cannings is the NDP MP for South Okanagan-West Kootenay.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.