Conservative Party non-confidence vote defeated as NDP backs Trudeau government

The Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) was unsuccessful in defeating Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberal government with a non-confidence vote that would have stopped an imminent rise in the hated carbon tax and triggered a federal election.

The final tally was 116 in favor of defeating the government and 204 opposed.

According to CPC  news release, the carbon tax, which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau insists upon calling a “tax on pollution,” will increase by another 23 percent on Apr. 1 while “70 percent of Canadians, and 70 percent of provincial premiers, including the Liberal Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador and Liberal parties in Ontario, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, oppose Trudeau’s tax hikes. But Justin Trudeau and his NDP coalition partners won’t listen.”

The CPC says the non-confidence vote is designed to create “a Carbon Tax Election.”

"We cannot in good conscience stand by while this prime minister imposes more misery and suffering on the Canadian people," Poilievre said during Thursday’s debate.

The news release notes that the Parliamentary Budget Officer has confirmed that the carbon tax on home heating fuel and gasoline “will cost families $911 in Alberta, $525 in Saskatchewan, $502 in Manitoba, $627 in Ontario $627, $537 in Nova Scotia, $550 in Prince Edward Island and $377 in Newfoundland and Labrador.”

In the lead-off question during Thursday’s Question Period, Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer said, “Clearly this NDP liberal Prime Minister is not worth the cost. And it's not just grocery prices that have skyrocketed in the last year – it’s Jamaican vacations, Mr. Speaker. The tab for the Prime Minister's trip this year came in at over $230,000 An increase of 42 percent.”

“Of course, while Canadians have to pay higher prices themselves, he gets to pass his bill on to taxpayers and now they have to pay the bill for his high carbon hypocrisy and the 23 percent tax hike that is coming. He's refused to cancel the hike,” Scheer continued. 

“Will he at least let Canadians decide for themselves and call the carbon tax election?” Scheer asked, adding that the carbon tax “is forcing Canadians to food banks for the first time in their lives. It's forcing Canadians to turn down thermostats and put food back on the shelf because they can't afford it.” 

“Will they do the right thing and let Canadians decide for themselves and call a carbon tax election?”

Introducing the non-confidence motion on Wednesday, Conservative and Official Opposition leader Pierre Poilievre declared, “After eight long years. The parliamentary budget officer confirms that in every single province Canadians pay far more in taxes than they get back and rebates a tax that will go up 23 percent. Today common sense conservatives are calling for the Prime Minister to grant his caucus a free vote on our motion despite the hike.”

During the pre-vote debate, deputy Conservative leader Melissa Lantsman said, "Canadians don't live in Liberal-land, they live in the real world ... They don't do Liberal math, they do real math."