Kootenay-Columbia MP Rob Morrison calls the deal between the federal Liberals and NDP a “power grab” by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau which will lead to less accountability.
On Tuesday, news broke that the two parties would enter into a supply and confidence agreement until the next federal election, set for 2025.
This means the NDP will vote with the minority Liberals on budget and confidence votes. In return, the Liberals promised support of some proposed NDP policies.
“This back-room deal is going to lead to high taxes and less accountability, which is one thing we were really fighting for, especially for Justin Trudeau,” said Morrison.
According to Morrison, the federal Conservatives raised concerns of a Liberal-NDP deal in the past.
“We really saw the writing on the wall when the Liberals invoked the Emergency Act to take away rights and freedoms of peaceful protestors,” said Morrison.
“When they (the Liberals) invoked the Emergency Act and the NDP voted with them to take away rights and freedoms, that should have been the light that came on to say they were going to be joining together.”
Morrison said the partnership would mean the Conservatives would have a harder time having their voices heard in parliament.
“We just brought up a bill to help Europe with their natural gas shortage because Russia is now not providing it to them,” explained Morrison. “We lost that because the Liberals and NDP didn’t want to supply another country with our natural resources. It just shows you that it’s going to be a very tough road.”
The MP said his party needs to rally support from voters ahead of the next election while it holds the current government to account.
“We will not just be critical of the fact that the government has no idea how they’re going to pay back the bills, but we as the Conservatives will have a plan on how we will do that,” said Morrison.
“Who knows how long these alliances will last? Sometimes they last a long time, other times they don’t last that long. We’ll just want to be prepared and ready so when there’s an election called, we get the confidence of Canadians to form a government.”