TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney faced a vote on his budget in Parliament on Monday that if lost could trigger an election.
Carney’s Liberal government does not have enough votes to pass the budget on its own. The Liberals don’t have a majority of seats in the House of Commons and must rely on an opposition party to pass legislation.
The budget vote, expected Monday evening, is considered a vote of confidence in the minority Liberal government.
The Liberals need the votes of at least two Members of Parliament outside their party — or four vote abstentions from the opposition benches — to pass the budget.
The last time a budget vote triggered an election in Canada was in 1979.
Carney ’s Liberal party scored a stunning comeback victory in an election last April in a vote widely seen as a rebuke of U.S. President Donald Trump. But the Liberals fell just short of winning an outright majority in Parliament.
Carney’s rival, populist Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, was in the lead until Trump took aim at Canada with a trade war and threats to annex the country as the 51st state.
A Conservative opposition lawmaker joined Carney’s governing Liberal Party earlier this month, a political coup on a day the government announced its budget for the year.
By ROB GILLIES
Associated Press
