As October’s chill grips Ottawa, Canada’s 45th Parliament limps forward amid legislative stagnation and whispers of electoral sabotage and blame.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals, fresh from their April minority victory, dwell in a House of Commons where ambition outpaces achievement and reason — that’s nothing new.
Only a handful of bills have advanced since the session began — Bill C-6 and Bill C-7, both appropriation acts for the 2025-26 fiscal year, and Bill C-5, the One Canadian Economy Act, which enacts the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act and the Building Canada Act. The passage of these supply and trade-infrastructure bills highlights the early focus of the minority government, while other pieces of legislation remain stalled at second reading.
Analyst Marty Belanger captured the dysfunction succinctly: “None of the Liberal bills are progressing in the House of Commons. The Liberals know that nothing will pass. The only bills approved so far are basically appropriation ones, and they were done without a budget.”
Belanger added: “The Liberals are desperate to advance their agenda, which is why I think they’re working secretly to get defeated and send us to the polls in the new year.”
Belanger’s words may ring true; with Conservatives baying for a budget vote and Poilievre the embodiment of a stale Ritz cracker.
Carney’s minority government teeters. A defeat in the House could trigger a holiday election, adding anxiety and irritation to a raging tariff storm.
Enter Donald Trump, whose levies on Canadian steel, autos and lumber have damaged exports, spiking unemployment across the country.
Polls show Carney’s approval is down slightly but broadly positive — voters crave a steady hand against Yankee aggression.
Will Trump once again crown Carney the tariff saviour? By cancelling trade negotiations over a cheeky anti-tariff ad, Trump has handed Liberals a rallying cry: sovereignty under siege.
A winter election would frame Carney as the crisis-tested banker who stared down the bully — and the CBC will make sure Canadians know it. Elbows up 2.0. The CBC and the Liberal Party of Canada will ensure Poilievre is branded a populist echo of Trump — potentially securing another win for Carney.
Yet desperation breeds peril. Forcing an early vote reeks of cynicism, sidestepping accountability for ballooning deficits and rampant poverty.
Canadians deserve debate, not Yuletide manipulation. If Trump keeps swinging, he might just gift-wrap Carney’s re-election.
Stalled bills below courtesy Marty Belanger.