Elections interference will not be a Confidence vote, Trudeau says – but tradition says the Budget will
The Special Committee hearing on interference by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Canadian elections heard last night that such interference has been long-standing and highly organized.
Gloria Fung of the Canada-Hong Kong link testified that the CCP broke Elections Canada laws regularly over the years, paying volunteers to help preferred candidates and making illegal campaigns donations. Illegal donations were fairly easy to track, Fung said, “because the numbers came with decimal points. They had been made in a foreign currency.”
While it appeared the Liberals were floating the idea of making today’s vote on elections interference a confidence vote (which would topple the government, if lost), Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told CTV news today on his way into Cabinet that it would not be a confidence vote.
However, the upcoming Budget and the vote on adopting the Budget will be a confidence vote based upon Parliamentary tradition.
Should Jagmeet Singh and the NDP opt to vote against the Budget, Trudeau’s government will fall and an election would be called, as Trudeau would clearly have lost the confidence of Parliament.
These aren’t the actions of an innocent government that is confident the facts are on their side. These are the actions of a government that knows the truth will cast them in an awful light, and are using every bit of power at their disposal to keep things https://t.co/H1uh3wAfli… https://t.co/tJZFAJ6p3w
— Spencer Fernando 🇨🇦 (@SpencerFernando) March 20, 2023
