If anyone was hoping that the four main political party leaders were going to work together to get us through the second wave of COVID-19 and our economic woes, those hopes were dashed by the comments from the party leaders last evening.
In the wake of the throne speech, the prime minister and the opposition leaders took to the airwaves to present very different agendas.
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s comments broadcast to the nation were essentially throne speech part two, with a heavy emphasis on the mounting COVID-19 second wave. And since a good deal of the throne speech outlined more COVID relief programs, which means more government spending, the Conservatives almost immediately and not surprisingly gave the speech a thumbs down.
Then again, when have the Liberals and Conservatives ever supported the other party on a throne speech?
The remarks from the Bloc Quebecois were the usual, ‘What’s in it for Quebec?” But we weren’t expecting any nation-building talk from the Bloc, were we?
The NDP bemoaned the fact that many of the NDP usual asks, like pharmacare and dental care, were not included, but the inclusion of a National Day Care policy might be enough for New Democrats to hold their noses and support the government, for now anyway.
The leaders all say they don’t want an election, but, it seems unlikely that the Conservatives or the Bloc will budge; so if the Liberals and NDP can’t strike some kind of deal, pandemic or no pandemic, we could be masking and social distancing and heading to the polls as early as next month.
Bill Kelly is the host of the Bill Kelly Show on Global News Radio 900 CHML.