Toronto/CMEDIA: Having reportedly won all three seats that were up for grabs in Monday’s byelections, the federal Liberals are entering a new era.
For the first day, Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney will be heading to Parliament Hill with his newly formed majority government.
Asked whether he has any plans to shuffle his cabinet, Carney on Tuesday said he does not, adding that his current ministers are all “very capable.”
“We do have a parliamentary majority now, and that is the product in the last 24 hours of strong support, increasing support for those deputies, the Liberal candidates in those three ridings,” Carney told reporters on Parliament Hill Tuesday. “So, not considering calling an election. I think very clearly Canadians want the government to govern.”
With the numbers being on their side during votes of confidence in the House, and having won a majority government, the Liberals now holding 174 seatscould be in power until 2029 and the end of the parliamentary session without the risk of being toppled by the opposition.
The change from a minority to majority Parliament will also have implications for the opposition leaders, according to political strategists.
When asked which measures he hopes to advance that he couldn’t before, he said that there were “a variety of issues” that took longer to move through Parliament than he would have liked.
“I say this as someone who’s testified to committees in front of the Canadian Parliament, in front of the U.K. Parliament for decades, there is a difference between real testimony, real substance, getting to issues, debating aspects of law, advancing, that’s the job of parliamentarians, and showboating, we’re going to have less of that,” Carney said. “We’re going to have more substance.”
Although Carney did not specify which measures or legislation he’s hoping to move through Parliament more quickly, he said he hopes to give the government “some breathing room” and the ability to better plan the legislative agenda through to the end of the year.
