Oct 22, 2020
New Tory motion could trigger second confidence showdown for Liberals
The Canadian Press
,NDP won't give Trudeau 'the election he is looking for': Singh
OTTAWA - One day after surviving a confidence vote on a Conservative motion, Justin Trudeau's minority Liberal government faces another Conservative motion that could trigger yet more high-stakes drama over the possibility of a snap election in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The official Opposition is using its second opposition day this week to debate a motion calling for a sweeping probe by the House of Commons health committee into a host of issues relating to the government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The motion is so broad and the demand for documents so massive that the Liberals are expected to argue that its passage would paralyze the government -- the same argument used to declare the first Conservative motion a confidence matter.
The government survived the subsequent confidence vote on that motion -- which would have created a special committee to investigate the WE Charity affair and other alleged examples of corruption -- with NDP, Green and independent MPs grudgingly joining with the Liberals on Wednesday to defeat the motion.
But all opposition parties blamed Prime Minister Trudeau for turning the issue into a confidence matter that threatened to plunge the country into an election.
With opposition resentment over the handling of that motion still fresh, the government now has to decide whether to play the same card again on the second Conservative motion.