Canada PM Trudeau puts fate of government on line with call for confidence vote
By David Ljunggren
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday put the fate of his Liberal government on the line, saying an opposition push to probe how Ottawa is tackling the coronavirus pandemic would be put to a confidence vote.
The Liberals have come under increasing attack from the official opposition Conservatives, who allege that some of the more than C$200 billion ($152.5 billion) handed out in coronavirus aid programs has been misspent.
The Conservatives want to create a committee to examine what they call the government's ethical problems. One area of focus is payments to Trudeau's wife and mother by a charity picked by the government to manage a student grant program.
There is some speculation in Ottawa that Trudeau might be tempted to trigger an election now before the government is obliged to wind down some of the expensive aid programs.
But a Canadian Broadcasting Corp aggregate tracker of recent opinion polls put the Liberals at 36.5% public support, with the Conservatives at 30.8%, which strongly suggests a national vote would produce another minority for Trudeau.
"The opposition is going to have to decide whether they want to make this minority parliament work or whether they have lost confidence in the government," Trudeau told a news conference.
The Liberals, who only won a minority of seats in an October 2019 election, would need the support of another party to survive. The chances of Trudeau actually losing power were unclear, since both he and his chief rival insisted they did not want to go to the polls during a worsening outbreak.
Trudeau's fate most likely depends on the left-leaning New Democrats, who have already said they would back Liberal efforts to fight the pandemic.
A spokesman for New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh said Trudeau was "trying hard to go for an election" while blaming the opposition. Singh is due to speak to reporters at about 3.15 ET (1915 GMT).
Conservative leader Erin O'Toole - who must decide whether he wants to continue his efforts - earlier told reporters that what he called a misuse of funds should be probed. If there were to be a vote it would be later this week.
The Canadian dollar was little changed on the news. It had earlier edged higher against the greenback as investors weighed the prospects for U.S. economic stimulus.
The deal to run the student program was scrapped but cost Trudeau the services of finance minister, Bill Morneau, who quit in August after he disclosed he had forgotten to repay travel expenses covered for him by the charity.
(Additional reporting by Fergal Smith in Toronto; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Bernadette Baum)
