The Grits are gunning for an election.With the NDP leaderless, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre still facing a leadership review, and the Green Party having yet to identify Elizabeth May’s long-lost replacement, Prime Minister Mark Carney wants to jump the shark and get his majority before the tsunami of bad economic news gets even worse.Don’t take my word for it. Just listen to what Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon is saying..STIRLING: Straw that broke the camel's back? SME productivity meets Canada Post’s climate activism.“We’re two weeks from the budget,” said MacKinnon. “I think what I’m seeing in Parliament worries me.”MacKinnon claims the Liberals have a mandate to govern, but he also said, “If an election is necessary, we would obviously [go] reluctantly, because we don’t think Canadians want an election. But an election there will be. It’s the opposition parties who have that decision in their hands.”Baloney. The Liberals are hoping and praying that the opposition votes down the budget, triggering an election that Carney desperately wants. .Will it happen? Don’t hold your breath. The Tories don’t look likely to support the budget. Poilievre, in a letter to Carney, called on the government to keep the deficit under $42 billion. National Bank is estimating the budget deficit could be over $100 billion, the second largest in Canadian history, so if Poilievre sticks to his principles on fiscal responsibility, the Conservatives supporting the budget, or abstaining, seems about as likely as a snow-free winter in Calgary.Plus, Poilievre is calling for tax relief, relief Carney seems unlikely to go for. .HANNAFORD: Your ten-year tweet was satire, right Mr. Trudeau?.The Bloc Quebecois has given the government a laundry list of demands so long it seems almost impossible for the government to meet it. It would include, surprise, surprise, billions of dollars for Quebec. There are other major costly asks, such as increasing old age security payments at age 65, and an unconditional provincial infrastructure transfer program. Again, it’s hard to see the Liberals fulfilling the Bloc’s asks. There are 18 demands in total, with six deemed “non-negotiable” by the separatists. But then, of course, there’s the NDP. The party is broke. It has no permanent leader, with the race to replace Jagmeet Singh extending until March of next year. .Interim Leader Don Davies said he told Carney “very clearly that we would not be able to support a budget that takes an austerity approach.” So, according to Davies, whether the NDP supports the Liberal budget will be up to Carney and Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne. While Carney has used words like austerity in the past to describe the budget, Champagne keeps talking about the need to make a “generational investment,” the likes of which Canada has not seen since 1945.Given that talk, and National Bank’s forecast of a $100 billion deficit, it would be pretty hard to imagine that the Liberals’ budget on November 4 will be an austerity budget. Sure, there might be some trimming here or there, but the Liberals seem to be all-in on a big-spending budget. .OLDCORN: Ding dong the witch is dead, Gondek’s exit gives Calgary hope.That makes it pretty hard to imagine that the NDP, broke and in the middle of a leadership race, would vote to plunge the country into a winter election. And, given that the Liberals are just three seats shy of a majority, the support of the NDP’s seven members of Parliament would ensure the budget’s passage. So, while the Liberals might be hoping for an election and toying with Canadians, it’s hard to imagine Canadians will be heading to the polls as a result of the November 4 budget. Unless the NDP wants to go into a campaign leaderless and without the funds to run a national campaign, they’ll find practically any excuse to vote for Champagne’s budget. A $100 billion deficit, strange as it may sound, may be all the excuse Davies needs to support the budget. Because there’s no way anyone can paint such a budget as one of austerity.
