All eyes are the on NDP and Liberals in crucial byelection: Tom Mulcair

Tom mare joins me now he's ctv's political commentator and the former leader of the NDP good morning to you Tom Good To Be With You Marcia so we had PV yesterday pushing a non-confidence motion against the Liberals at the earliest time possible we've got jug meet Singh today saying that all bets are off um as we go into a new session of parliament where are we well I'm willing to make a bet that Mr Singh is not going to vote down the liberal government anytime soon and we'll see what he in fact does when you have a confidence motion you go in order of course the the party that presents it will go before and after that it'll be the the block and then the NDP so if the block votes with the conservatives in favor of non-confidence on this one that leaves the NDP hanging and they're going to have no choice but to vote their confidence in Mr Trudeau's liberal Government after all the very tough things that Mr Singh said about Mr trudo not deserving another chance and uh you know everything he said the last week will just come to not it it's a funny situation Trudeau of course is under a lot of pressure to step down that Mark carne's arrival has just allowed people to realize that you know there are really good people out there who could take his place his numbers are abysmal he's 20 points down from the conservatives he says bravely that he's anxious to get back in the house with PV but I'm anxious to see whether Mr Trudeau comes in on Monday or not because he has had a tendency in the past to skip the first day and hold on till maybe the Tuesday or usually the Wednesday so we'll see whether he actually shows up for the first day Marcia that will be very telling and as you say Monday's byelection in that writing in Montreal is crucial it is a safe liberal writing David lyy won it won it again and won it handily and it was Paul A lot of it was Paul Martin's writing it's not the exact same writing but it was essentially you know the a key part Lal was much of Paul Martin's writing and the Liberals are according to all the information I've been getting on the ground in deep trouble they could very well lose this and if they do a whole new round of speculation about Trudeau's departure will of course begin I haven't had a chance to speak with you uh since the Carney announcement I wanted to get your take on it especially after Carney addressed uh caucus in Nimo is there some danger there Tom in having someone right next to you that people can make that comparison I mean what where was the wisdom there well the comparison works both ways because people who know Trudeau to be a very competent seasoned professional politician will say well this guy knows what to do in a campaign what about this guy Carney some people even said that Carney you know didn't Sparkle enough didn't come out too strongly but if he had people would have finger pointed and say oh he's obviously campaigning for the top job so Carney understated his presence there simply said he was answering the call of the Prime Minister to help the party and nobody can reproach that because remember back in the spring Marcia when Carney was being asked to come back and everything like that and there was talk about him people around Mr Trudeau were putting out some very tough spins saying oh well we when we asked Carney to help the party he wasn't there for us meaning that back at the 2021 election they had wanted Carney to run with Trudeau and Carney quite wisely in my view said no I'm a senior adviser at the United Nations and elsewhere and I'm going to keep this to myself and he was doing that simply because he knew what a mess economically trudos liberals had done you know since they been there so he stayed back now he's saying look I'm willing to help and he's just essentially saying look I'm in the bullpen if you need to call on me I'll come in and the Liberals I I don't think that there's anybody in the liberal universe who could do better than Mark Carney to improve their chances against PF certainly not trude though uh I'm going to squeeze in one last question I need a short answer please uh what is your political analysis of pv's call yesterday um essentially putting the Liberals and the NDP on notice are we closer to an election no not not this week not with that motion it's going to be gam playing I'll again go out on the limb and make a prediction Marcia that PV will use word for word what what sing said about Trudeau trying to bait him trying to force his hand and trying to make it as uncomfortable as possible I'm not a big fan of the name calling uh Mr PV has taken to name calling very much like uh Trump South of the Border I don't think that's appropriate in Canadian politics but no question that PV is one heck of a parliamentarian he knows how to stand up and you know swing away in question period he dominates Trudeau period Trudeau you know reads stuff that's written by other people so p is going to keep uh you know ahead of steam and I think the Liberals are going to continue to have trouble uh until Mr Trudeau you know accepts the inevitable that he's either going to lose badly to the conservatives or he could ask somebody else to maybe move in and have a much better chance of taking them on Tom will care for us this morning with all the predictions love it appreciate your time with us this morning we'll see you again