It’s difficult to pick winners and losers in Wednesday’s Parliamentary vote to establish an anti-corruption committee to delve into government pandemic spending, which was really a thinly veiled attempt to dig deeper into the WE Charity fiasco.
The government said that if the motion passed, it was tantamount to a non-confidence vote and an election would be called.
The vote failed, the government survived — and then, the finger-pointing started.
READ MORE: Liberals survive confidence vote, avert imminent election with NDP help
The NDP were accused of propping up the Liberal minority government.
But, with only about 18 per cent popular support with voters, a snap election at this time could be fatal to Jagmeet Singh’s party.
Conservative leader Erin O’Toole was outraged by the result, but he needs to be careful what he wishes for.
He’s still a relative unknown with voters and his Conservatives trail the Liberals by five points in the latest polling, so the chances of his winning an election at this point seem pretty slim.
READ MORE: New Conservative motion could trigger 2nd confidence vote for Liberals
The prime minister took a big gamble too, but he must have figured that he was dealt a pretty good hand in this round of political poker.
He still enjoys generally positive approval ratings, due mainly to his handling of pandemic assistance spending, and that would be a huge advantage if there were an election.
Make no mistake about it; this was all about power and who will control the agenda in this minority parliament.
There were no winners here.
A pox on all their houses for engaging in political gamesmanship instead of dealing with the crucial issues facing our nation.
Bill Kelly is the host of the Bill Kelly Show on Global News Radio 900 CHML.
Listen to the latest from the Bill Kelly Show
Comments