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Bill Kelly: Are we heading for a Christmas election?

A man walks on Parliament Hill during a snow storm in Ottawa, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020. Over 25cm of snow was expected to fall on the region as a winter storm passed through. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

When the federal government’s Fiscal Update was unveiled this week, and roundly panned by all of the Opposition leaders, we were assured that it was only a financial statement, not a government spending bill, so there wouldn’t be a non-confidence vote that could trigger an election.

But that could all change as early as this week when the government plans to introduce legislation to start spending money on some of their program proposals.

That changes the political landscape significantly.

READ MORE: Liberals ‘don’t want’ fiscal update vote to trigger election, Justin Trudeau says

Of course, all of the party leaders say they don’t want a non-confidence vote and they certainly don’t want a federal election — or so they say.

But, here we go again, in the same precarious political scenario that we faced just a few months ago.

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To calm those choppy waters, the government has to toss in a few extra spending initiatives that garnered NDP support, but it may not be that easy this time.

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The NDP want to fast track things like pharmacare for all and a national day care program, both very expensive and complex plans.

Click to play video: 'Coronavirus: Trudeau ‘reasonably confident’ opposition parties don’t want confidence vote on fiscal update'
Coronavirus: Trudeau ‘reasonably confident’ opposition parties don’t want confidence vote on fiscal update

The problem is, time is running out.

Unless the Liberals can find a dance partner to support the spending bill, the government could be defeated and we could be staring at an election mere weeks from now — and that’s a Christmas surprise nobody wants.

Bill Kelly is the host of the Bill Kelly Show on Global News Radio 900 CHML.

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