Kathleen Mpubulusi, who was the NDP candidate for St. Albert-Edmonton in last fall’s election and nearly doubled the support for the party in the riding, is quite pleased with the agreement between the Liberals and the NDP, but she does have her concerns.
“You know, with the promises that are there … it certainly looks very nice on paper,” she said in a recent interview with The Gazette.
Premier Justin Trudeau, along with NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, announced on March 22 their parties had reached a supply and confidence agreement in Canadian Parliament. The agreement promises “no surprises” in government until June 2025.
The parties have also identified key policy areas they have agreed to prioritize.
The priority areas include health care, which includes universal dental and pharmacare; affordability, which includes extending the Rapid Housing Agreement; climate change, which includes phasing out public financing of the fossil fuel sector; workers; reconciliation; a fairer tax system; and making democracy work for people.
Dr. Chaldeans Mensah, a political science professor at MacEwan University, said this is an agreement by two parties to avoid a vote of non-confidence that could potentially topple the government.
“The NDP is essentially offering the government the prospect of remaining in power until 2025," he said. “This agreement essentially guarantees Mr. Trudeau a working majority until 2025.”
“My sense is that Mr. Singh sees an opportunity here. The NDP sees an opportunity here to have some of their policy ideas implemented,” he said.
Mpulubusi agrees.
“The NDP have their certain big-policy things they want to see advanced and now we have the opportunity to get it done,” she said.
If some of the policy issues such as pharmacare and dental care are implemented, Mensah said he believes it will be a victory for the NDP.
“On the other hand, by joining forces with the Liberals, there's a potential for a loss of identity by the party,” said Mensah.
The agreement is not good news for either the Bloc Québécois or the Conservative Party as they can no longer exert leverage on the government, Mensah explained.
Despite CPC interim leader Candice Bergen and other CPC members calling the agreement a coalition, Mensah said this agreement is technically not a coalition, rather it is a working agreement — a coalition involves members of both parties serving in cabinet, something that will not happen in this case.
Mensah said the reason this form of narrative is being pushed is strategy.
Back in 2008, on the precipice of a non-confidence vote against then prime minister Stephen Harper, the Liberals and the NDP had proposed a coalition government with the support of the Bloc Québécois. Harper prorogued Parliament to avoid the no-confidence vote, as reported by the CBC.
Mensah said that proposed coalition was very unpopular at that time
“My sense is they are using the word coalition to remind people of that earlier effort to topple Mr. Harper's government. I think using the label 'coalition' is to link these two parties together in preparation for the next election so that they can tie them and say, ‘Look, this is the government that gives you certain policies, and we are offering alternatives,’” he said.
Mensah said there is some bad news with this agreement; people did not vote for this government arrangement, and it is more of a top-down approach by the leaders.
“I don't think it's going to sit very well with many of the NDP members and also the Liberal members, and the Conservatives, of course, are livid,” he said.
This is also not an Alberta-friendly agreement and Mensah said it could deepen the alienation between Edmonton and Ottawa.
“It's likely to accentuate the mistrust that we've had between Mr. Kenney and the federal government,” he said.
Mensah said neither Trudeau nor Singh are very popular in many parts of the province and further alienation could see a rise in popularity of right-wing independence-tied parties such as Wexit.
St. Albert-Edmonton Conservative MP Michael Cooper said this is a power grab by Trudeau, and that during the last three years the NDP has been propping up the Liberal government.
When Cooper was door-knocking during the last election, he said he spoke to people who were not happy with Trudeau but who were open to voting for the NDP.
“My message to them was that a vote for the NDP is vote for Justin Trudeau. And now that has been formalized. A vote for the NDP literally was a vote for Justin Trudeau,” said Cooper.
Mpulubusi agrees that Trudeau is not popular in this part of the world. But overall, she thinks NDP supporters just want to see the policies happen.
“I think the NDP is concerned with pushing to make our policies, our platforms happen, and if we get dental care, we get pharmacare, we get improved funding for the transitioning away from oil and gas and some real concrete action on meeting climate-change targets, then, really, it's not going to matter … It seems that to me more of the stronger anti-Trudeau feelings are with the Conservatives,” she said.
Cooper is concerned this agreement could come undone at any time. He is also concerned about the amount of spending.
"What this deal does is provides the worst of all worlds. It would implement big-spending socialist economic policies with massive deficits and higher taxes,” he said, adding the biggest loser out of this deal is accountability.
