Trudeau, Scheer and Singh haggle over potential minority government outcome in Monday’s election – TheRecord.com

Posted: October 24, 2019 at 10:56 am

"We are going to elect a government with Liberal MPs from right across the country. We will continue the hard work of investing in Canadians."

"Coalition" is not a dirty word, Singh said as he railed against Canada's electoral system, which gives the candidate with the most votes in each riding the victory.

Singh also criticized Trudeau for breaking his 2015 campaign promise that that election would be the last under the first-past-the-post system.

Singh said the system means that fewer than half of voters can choose a certain party, "and they get all the power, and that's wrong." Singh said Canadians often feel their vote doesn't matter, adding 60 per cent of Canadians "regularly" vote against the Conservatives.

"So it's wrong for the Conservatives to think that with less than 40 per of the power or vote they deserve all the majority of power. That's wrong," Singh said in Welland where former NDP MP Malcolm Allen is trying to take back his old seat of Niagara Centre from Liberal MP Vance Badawey.

Singh said he is committed to a "mixed-member proportional representation to make sure everyone's vote counts."

Singh started his day off at the popular Blue Star Restaurant in south Welland with Allen and Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath. ."

Green Leader Elizabeth May said it was premature to talk of coalition governments as she also laid into Trudeau for not living up to the 2015 pledge to change the Canadian voting system.

"You don't actually start talking about coalitions until the election is over," she said in Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island, where she was trying to add to her party's two seats and its chances of being a player in any possible post-election balance of power.

"We're prepared to work with and find ways to make Parliament work for Canadians. And to do that, Mr. Scheer is wrong in saying that he's got a new way in how Parliament works in a minority. Mr. Singh is wrong, saying he will only work with the Liberals."

Bloc Qubcois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet reiterated his party's position that it isn't interested in propping up any minority government, and instead would be guided by one criteria: what is good for Quebec.

A day earlier, Blanchet offered more specifics.

"There is no question of the Bloc systematically supporting a government or a coalition or a party. It will be piece by piece. If it's good for Quebec, we'll be there," he said on Wednesday.

"If the Conservatives decide to support us on the single tax return, it'll go through. If the Conservatives imagine that the Bloc Qubcois will support the abolition of the carbon tax, it won't happen."

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Trudeau, Scheer and Singh haggle over potential minority government outcome in Monday's election - TheRecord.com

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