Prime Minister Mark Carney signalled on Saturday that he’s prepared to fight an election over his government’s upcoming budget should it come to that.
The fiscal plan will be tabled in the minority Parliament on Tuesday, but it is far from clear whether the governing Liberals have the support of opposition parties.
At the closing of the APEC summit in South Korea, he talked up the benefits of what his government is planning to invest in and do in the future, but he avoided directly answering whether he believes there are enough votes in the House of Commons to get it through.
“I am 100 per cent confident that this budget is the right budget for this country — at this moment,” Carney said before boarding the plane to return home.
“This is not a game. This is a critical moment in the global economy — or an important moment in the global economy. It's a critical one for our country."
Losing the budget vote would plunge the country into an election a little more than six months after the last campaign.
Carney was asked whether he was prepared to fight an election on the upcoming fiscal plan.
“I'm always prepared to stand up for the right thing,” he responded.
On Tuesday, Carney said the Liberals will begin the process of making what he calls "generational investments” in the Canadian economy and the country’s infrastructure. He plans to restructure the way federal finances are presented and promises to bring Canada's operating account back into balance within three years.
WATCH | Supporting Carney's first budget won't be easy, NDP MP says:Mark Carney needs to find three votes from opposition parties to get his budget passed after he presents it on Nov. 4 — or risk triggering an election. Here’s what NDP MP Heather McPherson says her party needs to support it.Opposition parties weigh their optionsThe Conservatives and the NDP are doing a lot of soul-searching this weekend.
For the Conservatives there’s the political optics of supporting an agenda they don’t like.
Even still, Conservative sources have told CBC News that they don't want to fight an election right now but will do it if they have to.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has made a series of demands, including scrapping the industrial carbon tax and keeping the deficit below $42 billion.
The Parliamentary Budget Officer estimates the shortfall in the current budget year will be $46 billion but will rise to $75 billion next year.
For New Democrats, getting behind the Liberals may be even more of a stretch. Carney is planning increased defence spending but has also asked the rest of the government to find program reductions of 7.5 per cent in the next fiscal year, 2026-27, rising to 15 per cent in 2028-29.
Ad is 'not something I would have done'Meanwhile, Carney confirmed during his media availability that he apologized to U.S. President Donald Trump over Ontario anti-tariff ads that scuttled trade talks.
“The president was offended by the ad. And it's not something I would have done,” Carney said referring, to the ad buy. “I'm the one who is responsible in my role as prime minister for the relationship with the president of the United States, and the federal government is responsible for the foreign relationship with the U.S. government. So, things happen, we take the good with the bad, and I apologized."
The prime minister also confirms that he saw the ad beforehand and that he told Ontario Premier Doug Ford that he didn’t think it was a good idea.
The Ontario government, in mid-October, launched a one-minute television ad in the United States featuring clips from former president Ronald Reagan’s April 1987 radio address about free trade.
In the full address, Reagan defended a narrow application of tariffs against Japan while condemning their use more broadly. The former president was a free-trade supporter and one of the driving forces toward the original Canada-U.S. free-trade deal in 1988.
Days after the ad first aired, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute criticized the Ontario government on social media, and Trump abruptly terminated trade negotiations with Canada, calling the ad fraudulent and “FAKE.”