NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said Friday he doesn't think he'll have to chose between voting on tariff relief and bringing down the government because he expects a snap election call if Mark Carney wins the Liberal leadership.
Singh told a press conference in Toronto that if the government was serious about introducing a relief package for workers who might lose their jobs due to U.S. tariffs, it would have recalled Parliament by now.
"If the Liberals were seriously doing it, they could have recalled Parliament. We could have got these things passed, but now it's become clear that Mark Carney is going to call a snap election," he said.
"He's going to call an election before government resumes at the end of March. So we're preparing for that."
At a news conference in Vancouver Thursday, Carney would not rule out calling an election if he becomes Liberal leader.
"Let's see what the situation is in the middle of March and do what is best for Canadians," Carney said.
"If Parliament needs to be recalled for certain reasons, it will be. If it makes sense to get a strong mandate at that point, that is what will follow."
Jennifer Howard, the NDP's national campaign director, sent a memo to candidates and staff earlier this week saying they should be prepared for an election call as soon as March 10, one day after the Liberal leadership vote.
The NDP has just 140 candidates nominated out of 338 federal ridings. Singh said the party will be ready to fight an election campaign when it begins.
That campaign may be an uphill battle for the NDP. A recent Leger poll puts the party at just 14 per cent support — and suggests that support would drop to 12 per cent with Carney as Liberal leader.
The same poll says a Carney leadership would bring Liberal party support up six points, putting it in a dead heat with the Conservatives at 37 per cent each.
Singh chalked up the poll results to the buzz surrounding the Liberal leadership race.
"Normally in a leadership race there's some interest around that party, and I'm not concerned about that," he said.
The NDP's election campaign platform includes a pledge to remove the GST from "essentials" like home heating, cellphone services, grab-and-go grocery items, diapers and children's clothes, Singh said.
The NDP leader cited his policy proposal one day before the Liberal's GST holiday ends on Feb. 15.
Current Liberal leadership candidate Chrystia Freeland introduced legislation to temporarily remove the GST from restaurant meals, certain types of alcohol, toys and other holiday staples in late November, about three weeks before her bombshell resignation as finance minister. Freeland indicated when she stepped down that she hadn't supported the idea even though she was the one to sell it to Canadians.
Singh called for the pause to be made permanent at his Friday press conference on Freeland Street in downtown Toronto.
"I think it's wrong that you're going to have to pay more for things, particularly in the current context. We've got the threat of a trade war," he said.
Earlier this month, Canada received a month-long reprieve from U.S. President Donald Trump's threatened broad-based tariffs on Canadian imports. Tariffs of 10 per cent on Canadian energy and 25 per cent on all other Canadian products are now expected to take effect on Mar. 4.
Canadian steel and aluminum are set to be hit with an additional 25 per cent U.S. tariff, on top of Trump's other levies, starting Mar. 12.
The Canadian government plans to respond to the broad-based U.S. tariffs with $155 billion in counter measures if Trump follows through on his threat, and to respond swiftly to steel and aluminum import taxes when they are imposed.
