How the Conservatives helped pass Carney’s budget, avoiding an election

Minutes before time ran out for Monday’s budget vote, two senior Conservatives stormed the chamber claiming their electronic voting app was down and declared they wanted to vote against Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first budget.

MPs Andrew Scheer and Scott Reid, House leader and caucus chair, respectively, could have voted “no” in the chamber moments earlier. But they didn’t cast their votes until all their colleagues had finished.

While video footage appears to show two people standing behind curtains on the Conservative side of the House of Commons as the count was taking place, Scheer’s chief of staff told CBC News on Tuesday that it was not him or Reid.

After it became clear that the budget was going to pass thanks to two NDP abstentions but also two other Conservatives sitting out, Scheer and Reid told the Speaker that they wanted to vote against the budget but couldn’t due to technology issues within Parliament. The Speaker allowed it.

While they are diametrically opposed to the Liberal budget, sources say the Conservative Party’s top brass does not want an election so soon after the last one, especially since polls suggest Carney is generally the preferred choice for prime minister over Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre.

There was uncertainty about what the New Democrats were going to do with this vote, as the party’s MPs were silent on which path they would take.

Scheer and Reid not voting would have given the party breathing room if they had to unilaterally prevent the government from falling on this vote which, like all major financial bills, was seen as a confidence issue.

But Scheer’s boss said he always intended to vote remotely because he was at an international human rights subcommittee meeting on the persecution of Christians in Nigeria.

That meeting ended at 6 p.m., before the vote scheduled for 6:45 p.m., but Scheer was busy with other matters in the meantime, the chief said. Scheer only rushed to the House of Commons to cast his vote after the technology failed, he said.

Reid did not respond to a request for comment.

David McLaughlin, Brian Mulroney’s former chief of staff, said it appears the Conservatives “manufactured that majority for the government.”

“It was a little risky, but they can claim some sort of victory because whoever was in the House voted unanimously against it,” he said in an interview.

The last-minute votes drew some ridicule from Liberals on Tuesday. Scheer, Reid and other conservatives can openly support the government in the next vote of confidence or “maybe take a walk behind the curtains,” said Public Works Minister Joël Lightbound.

A Conservative source said Poilievre and his team are focused on a vote of a different kind right now: the leadership review of party members in January, which will decide whether he remains in office after falling short in the last federal campaign.

Weeks before Monday’s big drama, the Conservatives were holding talks with the NDP and Bloc Québécois about how this vote would play out and there was some discussion about abstentions to avoid an election.

In the end, NDP MPs did not have to abstain on this vote for it to pass: the budget would have been adjusted based solely on how Conservatives voted, or in this case, did not vote, despite Poilievre’s vigorous opposition to the document and its $78 billion deficit.

MP Matt Jeneroux, who abruptly announced his intention to resign in the new year after he was rumored to be crossing the field to the Liberals like his former caucus colleague Chris d’Entremont, was absent.

Another Conservative, MP Shannon Stubbs, is on medical leave. While remote voting exists in this post-pandemic era, she could not do so given her condition, according to her office.

A Conservative spokesman said Stubbs has undergone serious jaw surgery and is wearing a device that inhibits facial recognition software used to verify an MP’s identity when voting outside the chamber.

Stubbs has faced an avalanche of criticism online after his non-vote, which helped the government survive, especially after a video surfaced on social media posted to his account early Monday. Stubbs’ staff said it was recorded before her medical procedure and that she “strongly opposes Carney’s credit card budget.”

Since then, some conservatives have come to his defense.

“No one is more loyal and dedicated to our Conservative team,” said MP John Barlow.

“She’s a fighter who takes no prisoners,” added former MP Damien Kurek, who stepped aside so Poilievre could regain a seat in the House of Commons. “He would have loved nothing more than to reject this disaster Liberal budget.”

In a post on

“The Conservatives voted no tonight on this expensive credit card budget that puts Canada’s future at stake,” he said, omitting any mention of the two who didn’t.

The liberals were satisfied with the final result. The leader of the Government House, Steve MacKinnon, declared on Tuesday that “the minority Parliament is working.”

SEE | Carney calls it “a good day for Canada”:

Carney says it’s ‘a good day for Canada’ after budget passed narrowly in Monday’s vote

Prime Minister Mark Carney, speaking on Tuesday after his budget was approved in a crucial vote, says he salutes MPs who voted in favor of the bill, which passed the House by a result of 170-168.

“Parliamentarians decided to put Canada first and that’s really what matters,” added Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne.

Carney himself called it “a good day for Canadians.”