Latest news with #minoritygovernment
CTV News
2 days ago
- Business
- CTV News
CTV QP: Will Carney be able to keep his political promises?
Watch The Scrum panel discusses the policies Carney wants to introduce while navigating a minority government.
National Post
27-05-2025
- Business
- National Post
Tasha Kheiriddin: Mark Carney's quest for a majority
With Parliament now back in business, pundits and politicos are focused on this session's agenda. What will the government do about Trump and tariffs? How will Mark Carney perform in Question Period? When will Pierre Poilievre return to Parliament? And how will the NDP survive without party status? Article content Article content But not much will happen on the Hill in the next few weeks: the PM will be busy hosting the G7 at Kananaskis, and the House will rise in late June. No, the real intrigue lies just over the horizon in the fall. The big question: can the Liberal minority morph into a majority by then, to secure four years of power and avoid tangling with the opposition? Article content Article content The math is simple: The Liberals currently hold 169 seats, after the Newfoundland riding of Terra Nova—The Peninsulas flipped to the Conservatives following a recent recount. If the courts order a byelection in the Quebec riding of Terrebonne, where Elections Canada sent mail-in ballots astray due to improperly printed postal codes, the riding would likely flip to the Bloc Québécois, bringing the Liberals' total down to 168. And with Liberal MP Francis Scarpaleggia now elected as Speaker, they technically would only have 167. The majority threshold is 172. That means Carney would need five more MPs to lock in power. Article content Article content Small wonder, then, that the Liberals did not extend the NDP the courtesy of official party status. If the NDP had any hope of maintaining it, that went out the window when it botched its interim leader selection process, prompting three of its MPs to pen a letter of complaint — and sending blood into the water for circling Liberal sharks. Article content Article content What could the Liberals offer to get NDP members to cross the floor? They could start with pharmacare, by expanding the list of 'free' drugs from diabetes and birth control. During the election, former leader Jagmeet Singh had pledged to expand coverage to 'around 100 of the most prescribed medications,' including antibiotics, pain medication and cancer drugs. Regional development money could also be targeted to NDP-held ridings, to help tackle the impact of tariffs. Article content Article content But the big carrot could be foreign policy. The NDP has long supported Palestinian statehood, and was pushing for recognition in the Commons last year. Former PM Justin Trudeau said last fall that Canada was discussing the subject with its allies, and just last week Carney delivered a statement with Britain and France that the three nations are 'committed to recognizing a Palestinian state.' There is speculation that the Liberals are planning on putting forward a resolution — one that would undoubtedly pass if all seven NDP MPs voted for it, or enough made the switch to Liberal ranks.
Globe and Mail
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Globe and Mail
Canadians have no appetite for another election, want parties to work together: poll
Canadians have no appetite for another election within the next year, and want the Liberals and opposition parties to work together to ensure voters don't have to go back to the polls soon, a new poll has found. Eight out of 10 respondents to the survey, conducted for The Globe and Mail by Nanos Research, said they would prefer that the minority government and opposition parties work together so Canada does not have another federal election for at least a year. The Liberals currently hold 170 seats in the House of Commons in last month's election – just shy of the 172 seats needed to form a majority government, meaning they would need the support of MPs from other parties to advance their legislative agenda. A majority government typically lasts for four years, while the length of a minority Parliament varies and is more vulnerable to non-confidence votes. Ninety-six per cent of survey respondents who identified as Liberal voters and 98 per cent of those who said they voted for the Bloc Québécois favoured co-operation between the parties to keep Prime Minister Mark Carney's minority government in place for at least 12 months. But only 57 per cent of the survey's Conservative supporters said they wanted the Liberals to remain in power for another year, with 28 per cent preferring another election to try to elect a majority government. Overall, 12 per cent of Canadians favoured within the year going back to the polls for that reason. Nik Nanos, founder of Nanos Research, said a motivating factor for wanting the current minority Liberal government to stay in power, and to work with opposition parties, is the uncertainty over relations with the U.S. under President Donald Trump. 'It's almost like Canadians want a secession of election-like hostilities between all of the federal parties for the next 12 months,' he said. 'Canada is in a vulnerable and transitional phase right now,' he added, and Canadians want to see 'less politics and more focus on solutions in the short term.' 'I don't think Canadians expect for there to be an indefinite suspension of hostilities between all of the federal parties. But I think a 12-month break would be welcome,' he said. This is the third Liberal minority government in a row, with Justin Trudeau failing to gain a majority in both the 2019 and 2021 general elections. In the 2019 election, the Liberals won the most seats, but were 13 seats short of a majority. In 2021, the Liberals were 10 seats short of a majority. That minority government lasted for about three-and-a-half years – longer than most – after the NDP agreed to a supply-and-confidence agreement with the Liberals that helped keep them in power. The same Nanos survey also found that three in five Canadians were feeling either optimistic (38 per cent) or satisfied (21 per cent) about the outcome of April's federal election. One in three said they were either feeling pessimism (22 per cent) or anger (10 per cent). The Nanos poll, which surveyed 1,055 Canadians using a hybrid telephone and online random survey, was conducted between May 5 and May 8 and has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points, 19 times out of 20. Elections Canada estimates that the cost of April's election will be $570-million or about $19.79 for each registered elector. With a report from Bill Curry
News.com.au
19-05-2025
- Politics
- News.com.au
Portugal's far-right party gains as premier holds on
Portugal's Prime Minister Luis Montenegro prepared Monday to lead a new minority government after the upstart far-right Chega party tied for second place in snap elections, posing a major challenge to his centre-right alliance. Nearly complete official results showed that Montenegro's Democratic Alliance (AD) had boosted its tally in the 230-seat parliament to 89 in the Sunday election, short of the 116 seats required for a majority. Chega, led by the former television sports commentator Andre Ventura, won eight additional seats to reach 58, putting it on par in second place with the Socialist Party that also obtained 58. There are still four seats left to be assigned representing Portuguese who live abroad. Ventura said he was confident Chega would pick up a couple of those seats, as it did in the previous election last year, and would overtake the PS to become Portugal's main opposition party for the first time. "We didn't win these elections but we made history," Ventura told supporters who chanted "Portugal is ours and it always will be" shortly after midnight on Monday. "The system of two-party rule in Portugal is over," he said. Even with the backing of the recently formed business-friendly party Liberal Initiative (IL), which won nine seats, Montenegro's AD would still need the support of Chega or the PS to pass legislation. But Montenegro, 52, a lawyer by profession, has refused any alliance with the anti-establishment Chega, saying it was "unreliable" and "not suited to governing". - More elections ahead - His previous minority government was able to pass a budget because the PS abstained in key votes in parliament. But relations between Portugal's two mainstream parties have soured during the campaign, and it is unclear if a weakened PS -- which had its lowest score in decades, losing 20 seats -- will be willing to allow the centre-right to govern this time around. Montenegro said he expected a "sense of state, a sense of responsibility" from other parties so he could "continue to work". But Portugal will remain in campaign mode ahead of local elections this year and a presidential election set for January 2026. The coming contests are likely to reduce the incentive for parties to cooperate as they focus on highlighting their differences to sway voters. Antonio Costa Pinto, a political scientist at the University of Lisbon, predicted that Chega would take a "hardline stance against the AD". "The main challenge, without a doubt, for Luis Montenegro's government will come from his right," he said. - 'Step backward' - Sunday's election -- Portugal's third in three years -- was triggered when Montenegro lost a parliamentary vote of confidence in March after less than a year in power. He called the confidence vote following allegations of conflicts of interest related to his family's consultancy business, which has several clients holding government contracts. Montenegro has denied any wrongdoing, saying he was not involved in the day-to-day operations of the firm. Support for Chega meanwhile has grown in every general election since the party was founded in 2019 by Ventura, with calls for tougher sentences for criminals and restrictions on immigration. It won just one seat in parliament in 2019, but it was the first time an extreme-right party was represented in Portugal's parliament since a coup in 1974 toppled a decades-long far-right dictatorship. Since then its popularity has soared and it won 50 seats in last year's election, cementing its place in Portugal's political landscape and mirroring gains by extreme-right parties in other parts of Europe. "We're on slippery ground, and we've made this mistake before in our history. It's a step backward," Sergio Sales, a 44-year-old tuk-tuk driver in Lisbon, told AFP of Chega's rise.
BreakingNews.ie
19-05-2025
- Politics
- BreakingNews.ie
Portuguese election brings another minority government amid far-right rise
Portugal's President will convene the country's political parties for consultations on Monday, after a general election delivered another minority government as well as an unprecedented showing by populist party Chega (Enough) that added momentum to Europe's shift to the far-right. The centre-right Democratic Alliance, led by the Social Democratic Party, captured 89 seats in the 230-seat National Assembly to win Sunday's ballot. Advertisement The outcome leaves it without a parliamentary majority, however, and vulnerable to opposition parties that ousted it two months ago in a confidence vote after less than a year in power. Portugal's third general election in three years provided little hope for ending the worst spell of political instability for decades in the European Union country of 10.6 million people. Social Democratic Party leader Luis Montenegro will likely lead a minority government (AP) 'The Portuguese don't want any more early elections,' Luis Montenegro, the Democratic Alliance leader and incoming prime minister, said in an appeal for opposition parties to let him serve a full four-year term. 'We all have to be able to speak to each other and put the national interest first,' he added. Advertisement Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who has no executive power, is due to consult with the parties before inviting the election winner to form a government. Chega's result shook up the traditional balance of power in a trend already witnessed elsewhere in Europe with parties such as France's National Rally, the Brothers of Italy, and Alternative for Germany, which are now in the political mainstream. Leader Andre Ventura has appeared at events with the leaders of those parties in recent years. For the past 50 years, the Social Democrats and the centre-left Socialist Party have alternated in power in Portugal. Advertisement Socialist Party secretary general Pedro Nuno Santos stepped down after the party's worst result in nearly four decades (AP) Chega collected the same number of seats as the Socialists – 58 – and could yet claim second place when four remaining seats decided by voters abroad are attributed in coming days. 'The two-party system is over,' Mr Ventura, a lawyer and former soccer pundit, said. Chega competed in its first election just six years ago, when it won one seat, and has fed off disaffection over the more moderate traditional parties. Campaigning under the slogan 'Save Portugal', it describes itself as a nationalist party and has focused on curbing immigration and cracking down on corruption. Advertisement The Socialists, meanwhile, are without a leader after Pedro Nuno Santos said he was standing down after the party's worst result since 1987. The Democratic Alliance, which also includes the smaller Popular Party, lost a confidence vote in parliament in March as opposition legislators teamed up against it. That triggered an early election, which had been due in 2028. Chega's success is part of a wider picture of far-right gains across Europe (AP) The confidence vote was sparked by a political storm around potential conflicts of interest in the business dealings of Prime Minister Luís Montenegro's family law firm. Mr Montenegro has denied any wrongdoing. Corruption scandals have dogged Portuguese politics in recent years, helping fuel the rise of Chega. Advertisement But the party has recently fallen foul of its own legislators' alleged wrongdoing. One is suspected of stealing suitcases from the Lisbon airport and selling the contents online, and another allegedly faked the signature of a dead woman. Both resigned. Chega owes much of its success to its demands for a tighter immigration policy that have resonated with voters. Portugal has witnessed a steep rise in immigration. In 2018, there were fewer than a half-million legal immigrants in the country, according to government statistics. By early this year, there were more than 1.5 million, many of them Brazilians and Asians working in tourism and farming. Thousands more lack the proper documents to be in Portugal. The Democratic Alliance government announced two weeks before the election that it was expelling about 18,000 foreigners living in the country without authorisation. Though such a step is routine, the timing drew accusations that it was trying to capture votes from Chega. A housing crisis has also fired up debate. House prices and rents have been soaring for the past 10 years, due in part to an influx of white-collar foreigners who have driven up prices. The problem is compounded by Portugal being one of Western Europe's poorest countries.
