The biggest issue the Liberals and NDP will face is managing Parliament and the role of opposition parties to scrutinize minority governments
The Liberals and NDP have been talking a bit about making a deal to co-operate in Parliament. But the trickiest part about a parliamentary deal is in Parliament itself.
The biggest problem isn’t the policy agenda, though the two parties have different ideas about creating a national pharmacare plan, for example. Those things can often seem like procedural games, but they can matter to a minority government’s survival. When push comes to shove, they lead to threats of non-confidence votes and elections.Mr. Trudeau doesn’t want another three years of ministers’ aides being summoned to testify at parliamentary committees, or hearings into things like the WE Charity affair, or demands for thousands of documents. But it is hard to imagine the New Democrats could renounce such tactics completely.
But minority governments don’t have the votes to control committees. If opposition parties band together, the government can’t stop Parliament from using its sweeping powers to summon witnesses and demand papers. Minority-government parties usually respond to those things with filibusters and stonewalling. Both Mr. Harper’s Conservatives and Mr. Trudeau’s Liberals refused to allow staffers to testify at committee, essentially daring the opposition to escalate the dispute.
Such an arrangement would typically require the NDP to pledge support on key confidence matters such as budgets, but if the New Democrats renounce all rights to vote non-confidence, the Liberals would be able to stymie many of Parliament’s demands.
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