Poilievre says he’ll push non-confidence vote in government at earliest opportunity

prime minister Justin Trudeau and his caucus are wrapping up their meetings in Nao British Columbia they've been strategizing for the return to Parliament next week well where it will be anything but business as usual the Liberals face a key byelection in Quebec a torn up Supply and confidence deal and threats from the conservatives to try to force an early election but today the Prime Minister said he is excited to get back to work I can't wait to continue getting into it this fall with P PV whose perspective is cuts are the only way forward because I know that confident countries invest in their future invest in their workers invest in their people and that's what we're going to continue to do Randy baso is the Minister of employment Workforce Development and official languages and he joins me now from the caucus meetings in Theo British Columbia Minister welcome back to the show thanks David three days with your caucus uh been a week since the NDP ended its Supply and confidence agreement and multiple times since then uh Pier PV said he's going to try to bring your government down at the earliest possible opportunity what your expectation going into Parliament again on Monday well look there's no surprise that Pier po pi po is going to play politics with the return to Parliament our job is to get uh you know back to work return to Parliament get legislation on the books that's going to help make the lives of Canadians better including something like the long-term uh the safe Long-Term Care Act look David we got more deals to do with more provinces and territories when it comes to the school food program I want more on Dental Care More on Farm care when I'm on the doors as I spent a lot of time this summer people say to me Randy we want you and your colleagues in Ottawa getting stuff done that makes our lives better so look Pierre and jug meat can play politics we're going to be focused on Canadians each and every day starting right away on Monday September 16th well we heard from your colleague Alexander Mendes who said that people in her writing are saying on the doorstep Alexandra we want your leader to go because you can't win with Justin Trudeau there how widespread was that sentiment over the course of the three days you were in British Columbia you know teams are are are are funny funny beasts and we all came together and people are people are in the Liberal Party are able to blow off steam and and tell people what they hear and we heard from colleagues we got together we shared a very clear uh vision for the future we shared you know exactly how it is that we're going to you know have more contrast with Pier PA but really it's not about our party it's not about our government it's about delivering for Canadians and making sure the programs that they count on stay in there and so coming out of this caucus people are fired up energized I'm ready to uh make sure that we take on the issues that Canadians want us to uh address when we get back to Parliament look whenever the election happens sometimes in 2025 we've got a team of Warriors ready to go to battle to fight for Canada and that's what I came here hoping we'd accomplished and check mark check mark check mark down the line yeah I I watched the Prime Minister today in his his only press conference of the caucus Retreat we we heard from him early this morning and look you've heard it the country there is a desire for change you've heard it in the caucus there is a desire for change and what we heard from the Prime Minister today essentially was it's Steady As She Goes that keep delivering on the things that you outline there like advancing Dental Care pharmacare the long-term care uh legislation that was part of the supply and confidence agreement what is the change that you're you're making as a government to at least try to meet and respond that mood that is out there in the country well to that question David I'd say stay tuned what Canadians want us to do is keep delivering for them look we've got some good news this summer right we've got interest rates coming down we've got inflation settling in at that 2% uh Bank of Canada rate we've got you know things are getting better people are feeling it on the ground and look I I still you know enjoyed my time as associate Minister of Finance and I can share with you and with Canadians that we have the healthiest balance sheet in the G7 what are we going to do with that healthiest economic position of industrialized countries we're going to put it in the service of Canadians and I can tell you that change is coming if Pier POV comes in and cuts Child Care Cuts supports to seniors cuts the dental care and the pharmacare so we are going to be laying down a lot of track and making it very clear that you can have a government that cares in you and your family or you can have a peer poly of choice which is going to try to impose Reaganomics on our country and David I don't know about you but I live through that and trickle down economics don't work you've got to grow the economy from the bottom up and the middle out not to benefit the 1% and the richest donors and that's what Pier po would do should he ever take over and we're going to do everything in our power to make sure that we don't do that I I I know I'm half a country away but my sense from from speaking to people who are there and and in your caucus and from the coverage and the interviews that I've seen seems like the target audience the Prime Minister and his office this these couple of days was the caucus and not necessarily the country to try to get them all onside after an anxious summer in the wake of Toronto St Paul's am I misreading it or is that in fact what this has been about oh look National caucus is always about coming together making sure that we get Regional reports like I I was part of my you know Prairie's and North caucus earlier this week I attended immigration caucus with Minister Miller and others I was in various different thematic caucuses throughout the time here Ino we have to come back cuz the country is so darn big as you know David and and we spend time in our families we spend time in our writings part of national caucus means you come back and you share all that information and you share The Good the Bad and the Ugly you put it all together and you develop a plan to go forward and I can tell you we are forward behind the Prime Minister behind Justin Trudeau ready to deliver for Canadians and whenever that election is we're going to make sure that Canadians get a real sense of the choice they have before them you you talk about the the healthy balance sheet relative to other countries R in the G7 something the Deputy Prime Minister the Prime Minister and others in your government speak about but you know Canadians are very worried about their own individual balance sheets we're seeing on employment tick up we've seen growth slow down to the point that one the major banks are referring to the state of the economy as recession like there's a lot of concern about Canada sliding not just against the United States but G7 peers the oecd average when it comes to productivity measurements on a per capita basis I mean I I know Mark Kerney has been appointed to help develop the platform for an election that could a year away what are the new things you're doing to jolt the economy back into life cuz dental care and these things while important they're not going to boost economic productivity necessarily in the business sector so there's a few things and I'm glad you raised the productivity issue uh David because look there's a there's a bit of a productivity industry in this country talking about I mean I remember productivity being challenged between us in the United States when I was 12 years old and it's been a a perennial challenge for our country in part because we are a natural resource Country and what we've done on our watch and don't take my word for it ask Bloomberg where's the number one uh electric vehicle supply chain in the world right now it's Canada and that's because of important Investments that we've made in the supply chain in workers in building up that manufacturing supply chain that's one example I'll tell you what another example is of our government committing to productivity $30 billion on a $10 a a day Child Care Program that releases a whole bunch of people mostly women into the workforce that's also important and look I'll talk about my own file temporary form workers dialing back the number of people that can come in when we do that Benjamin tall was out and said look this is going to increase productivity because those jobs are going to go into the hands of people already here and the other thing that Francois Philip champagne and I and Minister Freeland are working on with others like Mark Carney is making sure that we get the message out to businesses Canadian business owners that if we want more productivity between us in the United States and other G7 countries we've got to invest more in our people and we've got to invest more in our businesses so that's automation that's AI That's techn technology Investments and so we can play a role in that and look I've got a Workforce Summit coming up this fall it's the first time we've had one in 12 years the United States does this every year and so I'm bringing people from across the country to zero in on productivity to zero in on developing the 21st century Workforce because that's what Canadians have asked us to do it's what the Prime Minister asked me to do in this job and so we're rolling up our sleeves and getting to work this fall I know the Prime Minister and you in this in this conversation have cast all of this as important but also at risk should Mr PA have win the next election whenever that comes um how quickly do you think you'll face a confidence challenge the Parliamentary calendar is a little bit unclear to me right now as the when you will provide the first confidence vote opportunity as a government or when the opposition may have their first chance to try to uh put something on on the order paper to to bring you down I mean when do you expect to see this next flash point in Parliament so David I'm confident that we're going to get well into 2025 before any Prospect of an election eltion happens I think we're going to see a fall economic statement we're going to see new legislation we're going to see a bunch of conservative games every time they have an opposition day motion they're going to put the confidence thing at the end and then we're going to have to do what we've always had to do in a minority Parliament which is find somebody to make sure that we get through that confidence motion so could be the NDP could be the block might even on a non-confidence motion be the conservatives that's let's see how it plays out we did this we did this from 19 to 21 we did this for the six months after 2021 this is how minority parliaments work it's a case by case issue by issue confidence motion by confidence motion uh work Karina G is on it our team is on it and I am confident that we're well into 2025 before we're even worried about getting out the lawn sign I I appreciate your positive vibes Minister but I think it's very unlikely that Mr P and his caucus are going to vote with you on any kind of a confidence matter uh for as long as this Parliament lasts no not a confidence one let's see if there's another like there might be something where they want to just they would vote with us in minority times in years before election are unpredictable beasts let's see what happens yeah if you want to scrap the carbon tax I'm sure you'll get their vote look I I know things are a bit more optimistic and settled in your caucus post Toronto St Paul's but just as a final Point Parliament back on Monday I know there's two byelections for your party it's l Maron that matters this good mood could go away very quickly on Tuesday should you not hold on to David lit's old seat how important is that for you and your part party and for the Prime Minister on Monday well all byelections are important lale Maran is important for us let's not speculate on the outcomes I know we got lots of people on the ground talking with lots of uh residents I've talked to uh people that I know really well who had the best some of the best door knocking they've ever done anywhere in the country in LEL amard veran on the weekend and so we're doing what we do during byelections and campaigns is we give it our all and let's have a chat on Tuesday when all the votes are counted okay Randy baso minister of employment Workforce Development and official languages always good to speak with you thanks for your time conservative leader Pier PV says his party will put forward a non-confidence motion at the earliest possible opportunity and there's those two high stakes byelections will put almost all of the federal parties to the test I'm asking Jag meet Singh and the NDP to commit unequivocally before Monday's byelections will they vote non-confidence to bring down the costly Coalition and trigger a carbon tax election I say directly to Pier PV I'm not going to listen to you someone who wants to destroy your Healthcare System who wants to hurt seniors by cutting their pensions someone who wants to attack workers and I can't wait to continue getting into it this fall with P PV whose perspective is Cuts or the only way forward so in the leadup to the return to Ottawa liberal MPS have been meeting in in Theo British Columbia where the Prime Minister has been dodging calls about whether he is the right person to lead the party into the next election so how will this all play out when summer break officially comes to an end next week let's bring in the power panel on that Andrew Thompson is a former Saskatchewan NDP cabinet minister Jonathan kis is a former Quebec adviser to prime minister Justin Trudeau and here with me in the studio are the newlanders Tim power is a former strategist for conservative parties and T murles mcch Charles is the Toronto Stars parliamentary bureau chief uh good to see you all uh Jonathan I'm going to start with you and Andrew because uh if I set them going uh it won't stop um I listened to the Prime Minister today Jonathan I mean we've heard pi po have threatened confidence motions before we're going to hear him threaten confidence motions again I listened to the Prime Minister this morning though at a time when the caucus and the country have been calling for Change and he basically outlined a plan for Steady As She Goes I I mean where are things with the Liberals coming out on the Nyo I I think when you're a year out of an election when you're trailing in the polls um you know people are gonna be looking for the Scandal or their dissension in the ranks and yes you had a second MP come out at at excuse me at the beginning of caucus and sort of kind of not really call for him not to run again or to to leave um and those of you who know Alexandra Mendes and I know her well for a long time and she's great and I'm shocked that it's taken this long for her to come out and complain and say that she's not happy with the way things have gone so now you have two caucus members out of 150 something who who have called on that of course people aren't thrilled yes the numbers aren't great yes it's an uphill battle but clearly they believe they have a plan and they're going to continue working at it they've been at this for a while where the goal is not just to change the channel on on you know where things have been for the last two years year and a half but really you know there's an optimism that the economy is picking up um that inflation is going down interest rates are going down and we're it's not something you can feel immediately but it's starting to happen so I think they have to focus on that I don't know what else they would right you know jug me Singh has set himself up for you know he made this whole dramatic I'm tearing up the agreement with no plan in mind he goes out to microphones the day after he launched his video he's now done it two days in a row in his caucus Retreat where he doesn't have an answer to the most obvious question that everybody knew would be asked which is Pier have it his first opportunity is going to table a non-confidence vote and his answer is well we're going to take it on a case-by Case basis and see what every bill is this is a non-confidence bill either yes or no so if his whole goal was to say we're not with the Liberals we're not going to prop them up we have to separate ourselves from them what's going to happen is he going to vote non-confidence in the government and then what then what was this whole charade about and if he does is he really ready for elections you saw them already ad today backtracking their caucus well we're not really sure we're ready for an election so what was this all about the NDP seems like they're all over the place more so than the Liberals well yeah Andrew I I I I I I I can't imagine they'll vote non-confidence if it looks like it will actually pass right because I think they want time to differentiate themselves from the Liberals but you know the LI the Liberals offered a sort of status quo response today I don't know if that's because really the target audience at this caucus Reet was the caucus to sort of calm everybody down in the run up to what's going to happen maybe in on Monday night but but what do you make of the landscape as the three leaders sort of set things out today you know what funny I was looking at Twitter I don't know why partly because I was folling you're a masochist must some don't hold that against me but one of the things that was running today was one of the Pei liberal fan accounts was running a bunch of the ads the Liberals had in the last election yeah and I was watching it and I thought the message hasn't changed at all for the Liberals they haven't got it at all you know it's the same talking points it's like they're going to refight the 21 election here in 2024 25 and if that's where they're at they've got real problems now they have made progress they have changed a lot of their policies to try to get back in line with the public they've changed the faces in front of the camera for a cabinet that helps in some cases I mean obviously Fraser and Miller are are very capable in the roles that they've got now but the talking points are the same and if they don't figure out how to change that if they don't figure out how to change the leader they're in trouble second piece I just want to say is if they're following genro strategy and they think they're kicking the NDP in The Shins is the way to move forward they've made a big tactical error on what they need to do to actually win and I think that that is uh you know I don't know maybe the NDP is prepared to uh you know cash in the chips and uh go for the election and have a real good Donny Brook on this well see I I mean t I noted today that the Prime Minister wasn't criticizing jug meet saying it was Pier PA was goingon to cut this pier PA was goingon to do this pier PA P Ral right that's where it is so what do you make of where the Liberals are coming out of this like it was we're going to keep delivering on the things we've been delivering on there wasn't the big message of change that a lot of people were like kind of anticipating would come but maybe is it just too early in the process where they look they telegraphed at cabinet that they believed delivery was the issue that they had to persuade Canadians they are delivering good things for them and that at caucus they would listen still be in listening mode to hear what new ideas were coming forward from caucus but I think most people expected they would come out of caucus with some ideas or some things that they were prepared to fight for that would represent change and whether you know if it's not going to be change at the Top If it's not going to be big changes at the pmo we have a minor change and Staffing at the head of the campaign but we don't have big policy changes and if they're going to do a shift to the center economically or if they're going to uh try to appeal to say those voters who think they've moved too far left in their cooperation deal with the NDP then where what is that path forward we didn't get that signal and I'm not too surprised by it only because that's kind kind of what they were signaling at cabinet on the other hand it seems to me they think they've got a Communications problem a voter Communications problem not a voter fatigue problem and that's the thing the thing I think is their challenge Tim I I wonder just in terms of sequencing if you can really sort of like unveil whatever your pivot is before you know what's going to happen unless Sal Mar they done on Monday night because if you start laying the track for change right now and then you lose that seat you're blown right out of the water yeah but it's almost like you're always waiting for something else if you're the liberal government right and that seems to be their challenge they need disruption and if it's not going to be a leadership change as Tonda was alluding to in terms of an economic activity what is it look they did something smart I think this week in getting Mark karney out there in as much as at least the discussion around Mark's future where he's going distracted for at least you know 24 to 36 hours on the current uh struggles inside the liberal caucus but when you hear the Prime Minister delivering the same lines over and over they're either being brushed away or just simply not heard and you almost feel like um he's more in need of an intervention than anything else because everybody else is looking at the polls everybody else is looking at still the dissatis jonno's right there are signs that the econom is improving but people aren't feeling that well inflation's improving I mean unemployment's going up growth isn't great they aren't feeling what the Liberals want them to feel so the only person who seems to have any soundtrack for this is the prime minister but it's not the soundtrack anybody wants to hear and and as it is for PV yeah of course in some ways he he's going to call for a confidence vote that's the job of the opposition leader but equally he has an audience and a body of people supporting him who are banking on him bringing change faster so if he doesn't deliver it no matter how gimmicky other parties May describe it he's failing in his role so you have this stew at the moment as long as it doesn't include cats and dogs I'm good I I think there's a cognitive dissonance here overall sorry guys it's over now you want to go I warned you go Ahad go ahead there's a cognitive dissonance in this sense like the Liberals are trying to project positive and positivity you heard the Prime Minister use those words today around the macroeconomic picture things are going to get better going to look up and that's sort of reminiscent of the sunny ways Vibe of 2015 but at the same time they have to empathize with the struggles of Canadians and you hear them use that language about you know we know people are anxious about the cost of living we're going to we're helping them address their daily concerns and and therein lies the pitch what is the pitch what is the message and and to voters for the next campaign well jonno I mean the pitch is kind of the government balance sheet is good and Tim's phone is ringing so that's a that's a sign of an experienced that's a sign of an experienced television pundit right there for manager te you want to sign up um but but J like the argument is that the government balance sheet is is good relative to the G7 and we're going to use that power to help you deal with the challenges that you're facing uh that takes a bit of time and I don't know if people are struggling with daily cost of living um can't pay their cell phone bills unlike Tim and are worried about I don't know if they're too worried about the the the debt to GDP ratio and the balance sheet of the federal government Rel relative to say Germany and France you know what I mean like that doesn't connect directly people aren't that that's for sure the case and I think that's been the biggest struggle over the last two three years of really this cost of living crisis that we've been living in I don't think it's a lack of empathy I think people in the government are are concerned about how people are dealing with it understand the challenges and it's not like this Communications issue has been lingering for a while but the real issue is how do we talk about it and how do we not talk about it like Elites the way that they're accused of being certainly not talking about macroeconomics because the J debt to GDP ratio does not impact the price of groceries not in anybody's mind at least sure so you have two challenges one make it micro what is it that we're doing talk about the dental care or if there's going to be a farm plan what that's going to mean or about child care things that actually impact people's pocketbooks the challenge Remains the carbon tax and how to explain why there's an advantage for more Canadians than there isn't they haven't won that battle they've lost that battle so far right and the second one is whether it's housing or continue lowering of inflation and and interest rates is that those are things that are in the medium and long term and so they can't Bank on that people have to feel optimistic if the if the election let's say is in 6 months or 8 months or a year people may feel a little bit more optimistic they may have more room to breathe but what do we do between now and then that's the the key is what is the actual here are the the specific tools we're going to use to help you make your life easier and you know I heard somebody go for it no I just I gotta get because I got to get to a break but but just in terms of language P proba talks about paychecks Andrew which is something you get every week or every two weeks you know he's not he's talking about things that that are but just on the bait he's trying to get Jug meat Singh to take I want an unequivocal commitment that you're going to vote to bring down this government and plunge the country into an election how do you expect the NDP to keep responding to that is is it just the dismissive I'm not going to listen to that guy yeah of course it is I mean you know this is the gamesmanship and I think that that's one of the risks that PV has is that everything looks like it's a gimmick uh there's not enough substance behind it Beyond his you know uh you know drooling of appetite to get to the to an election and so I think a lot of people are like well yeah okay but we know that that's not going to work so you know what are you guys going to do like what's next and we're not seeing that from from him problem of course for the Liberals is that yeah they've got some of the stuff most of the stuff that jono listed off would never have happened if it hadn't been for them falling into a minority in the NDP forcing it I mean why did it take six years to do child care why it take eight years to do a dental plan you know so that's kind of sits there and it reminds people going way back to 2015 about the broken promises around you know things like uh electoral reform that for a new generation really is important and those kind of issues and I think a lot of that the advantage for the Liberals is almost all of it is boxed up and tagged on to the Prime Minister not the Liberal Party itself which is kind of interesting but tagged to the Prime Minister and you know the makes it a lot easier for them then to figure out well what's the last lever to pull right