Poilievre-led attempt to bring down Trudeau minority over carbon tax fails

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's attempt to pass a vote of non-confidence and bring down Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal minority government over the carbon tax failed Thursday.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's attempt to pass a vote of non-confidence and bring down Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal minority government over the carbon tax failed Thursday.

After a day of debate seeing MPs air their grievances over the climate policy, as well as the state of political discourse surrounding it, Trudeau ultimately prevailed, securing majority support in defeating the motion of non-confidence.

The procedural manoeuvre was an escalation of the Official Opposition's pollution-pricing pushback, buoyed by the growing cross-Canada resistance to the April 1 carbon price increase to $80 from $65 per tonne of carbon emissions.

Leading off a daylong debate in the House of Commons before leaving town for a fundraising event on Bay Street in downtown Toronto, Poilievre pushed for Parliament to be dissolved and an election called.

"After eight years, it is clear that this NDP-Liberal prime minister is not worth the cost, the crime or the corruption," he said. "We cannot in good conscience stand by while this prime minister imposes more misery and suffering on the Canadian people."

The Official Opposition leader cast his vote on this rarely employed and potentially consequential parliamentary mechanism virtually.

His absence was brought up by NDP MP Charlie Angus, who questioned why Poilievre was leaving his "poor" MPs "to do the heavy lifting of bringing down the government" while he was off "fundraising with his lobbyist friends."