Poilievre urges Singh to force fall election by ending NDP deal with Liberals

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is asking the New Democrats and Bloc Québécois to stop supporting the minority government and force an early election, saying Liberal policies are making life less affordable for Canadians.

“Canadians cannot afford another painful, costly, chaotic and corrupt year of Justin Trudeau,” he said at a press conference in Ottawa on Thursday morning.

“He will not quit; he must be fired.”

Poilievre called for the other opposition parties to vote non-confidence in the government when the House of Commons resumes next month.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, when asked about Poilievre’s call for an election at a press conference in Toronto, defended her party’s economic record, saying inflation remains within the Bank of Canada’s target rate.

“I want to conclude by reminding people of the fundamental hypocrisy at the heart of what we have been hearing from the Conservative leader today,” she said.

“The Conservatives, I think, are showing how fundamentally self-centered they are — all they care about is themselves and their party. They are seeing this good news for Canadians, (and) they are seeing it as bad news for themselves.”

Poilievre also sent a letter Thursday to New Democrat Leader Jagmeet Singh, urging him to pull out of the party’s confidence-and-supply agreement with the Liberals.

“Singh sold out to workers to sign onto this costly coalition,” Poilievre said.

“He can huff and puff all he wants, but he supported the inflationary policies that destroyed the wages of working class people.”

The NDP entered a deal with the Liberals in 2022, agreeing to keep the minority government in power until June 2025 in exchange for movement on key priorities.

New Democrats have used the agreement to push