Prime Minister Mark Carney rises during question period on Parliament Hill in September, 2025, with Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre looking on.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
There is considerable speculation that Prime Minister Mark Carney might seek an election, this spring, even though the 45th Parliament has been sitting for less than a year.
What reason might the Liberals offer for going once again to the polls? In a word, obstruction.
The Liberals are very fond of the word. Their MPs have uttered it, or one of its variants, (“obstructing,” “obstructed,” etc.) more than 130 times in debates in the 13 full sitting days since the House returned Jan. 26. Here was Mr. Carney on Feb. 10:
“The other party’s obstruction in the previous Parliament is what eventually caused the dollar to fall.”
MP Chris Bittle on the same day concerning several Liberal pieces of legislation: “The Conservatives are just fundraising off their obstruction.”
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And from Ruby Sahota, a secretary of state, on Feb. 10: “The Conservatives are good at giving salacious speeches, but they have been obstructing any of our measures that we have put forward.”
According to Hansard, the Liberals used the word “obstruction” or its variants 43 times in debate on that day.
But there’s another word for what the Conservatives are doing: opposing. That’s their job. It’s even in their Parliamentary name: the Official Opposition. And in a minority Parliament, such as this one, the government is supposed to work with opposition MPs to win majority support for its legislative agenda. That requires compromise.
If the Liberals want to implement the budget they introduced last November, if they want to pass a bill to tighten bail provisions, if they want to launch their home building program or the other elements of their agenda, then they should work with those on the other side of the House.
It’s not hard to see why the Liberals are tempted to hold a spring vote. Polls show they have opened a significant lead over the Conservatives in recent weeks. If a vote were held tomorrow, they might win a majority government.
And majority governments in Canada are a wonderful thing for whichever party holds that majority. The prime minister wields tremendous power, stacking Parliamentary committees with their MPs and invoking closure at will to limit debate on legislation.
Minority Parliaments, in which the governing party usually has a plurality but not a majority of seats, offer at least some measure of constraint on the exercise of virtually unlimited power.
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The Liberals may not be happy with a minority government, but that is the rule, not the exception, in recent political history. Nine federal elections in this century resulted in just three majority governments.
The results of last year’s election on April 25 left Mark Carney’s Liberals just short of a majority. Efforts to lure MPs to cross the floor have so far failed to secure a majority. And the Supreme Court just annulled the result in the Montreal-area riding of Terrebonne, which the Liberals had taken with a disputed one-vote advantage.
There are good reasons for Mr. Carney to work with the hand he’s been dealt, rather than to insist on a new game. For one thing, the Liberals might not win a majority government. Justin Trudeau also thought he could obtain a majority when he called an election prematurely in 2021. Instead, voters delivered another minority Parliament. The voters might do the same again, or hand power to Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives.
As well, the federal NDP are in the midst of a leadership contest, which culminates March 29. As an act of mercy (or pity), the Liberals might want to wait until that leader has been chosen and has settled in.
Mr. Poilievre has offered to work with the Liberals in areas where the two parties are able to find common ground. That includes forming a common front in the face of threats from U.S. President Donald Trump to revise or even terminate the continental free trade agreement.
The government should take him up on that offer. And the Liberals need to recognize that it is incumbent upon them, not the opposition, to secure support for their agenda.
Mr. Carney insists that he does not have a spring election in mind. Let’s take him at his word and encourage a change of vocabulary from “obstruction” to “co-operation.” Maybe even “compromise.”