Regina-area MPs speak out against Liberal-NDP agreement

Not too happy.

That’s one way to describe how Regina-area Conservative MPs are feeling about an agreement between the NDP and Liberals that will see the New Democrats support Justin Trudeau’s minority government until 2025.

“It’s sad to see that the NDP has sold out to the Liberals,” Regina-Wascana MP Michael Kram said Tuesday. “There will be a lot less co-operation among the Opposition parties and among the parties in the House of Commons because the NDP has really abdicated their responsibility as an Opposition party.

“This will be more bad news for the voters of Saskatchewan because the voters of Saskatchewan certainly did not vote for the Liberals or the NDP or a Liberal-NDP coalition.”

Officially, the deal is called a “confidence and supply” agreement. A coalition government would see NDP MPs eligible to be in cabinet, which isn’t happening in this instance.

Under the terms of the deal announced Tuesday, the NDP will not put forward a vote of non-confidence and won’t vote for a non-confidence motion during the term of the deal.

As a result, the Liberals have agreed to prioritize a number of things on the NDP wish list, such as a new dental-care program for low-income Canadians, progress on a universal national pharmacare program, legislation to ensure seniors are guaranteed care, and assistance for home buyers.

Kram recognizes this agreement by the two parties as another challenge the Conservative Party will have to overcome.

“This did come as a surprise, especially when the NDP just got a bunch of vague promises in exchange, and didn’t really get any firm commitments from the government,” he claimed.

“Tommy Douglas must be rolling over in his grave. I didn’t think the NDP would cave in.”

Regina-Qu’Appelle MP Andrew Scheer is a harsh critic of the new pact.

He says he doesn’t believe this is what a lot of people voted for.

“It’s going to be that much harder for Canadians to get accurate information on a number of different issues because the NDP are now signalling that they’re going to prop up this corrupt Liberal government,” Scheer said.

“When I went door-knocking in the last election, I heard from a lot of people who said that they were angry at Justin Trudeau, but they identified as more left wing, so they planned to vote for the NDP. This is because they wanted to support a party that represented their views, but also send a message that the Liberal corruption was unacceptable.

“It’s got to be a real gut punch for them today to see Jagmeet Singh (leader of the NDP) sign on to this kind of deal.”

There are plans in place so that the NDP can walk away from the deal if it doesn’t feel enough progress is being made, but Trudeau has stated he believes the parties can work together.

Despite the new agreement, the prime minister stressed every piece of legislation will be scrutinized as it usually is, committees will continue their work and MPs from every party will continue to hold the government to account.

Both Kram and Scheer called the agreement a blatant power grab. Kram added it will confirm the belief that new costs could be coming for people in Canada, especially with the planned carbon tax increase scheduled for April 1.