Liberals Admit Lacking Votes to Pass Federal Budget
Liberal House Leader Steven MacKinnon says the government currently does not have enough votes to pass the upcoming federal budget, warning that Canadians could be headed for another election if opposition parties refuse to cooperate.
“As we speak right now, we don’t have the votes,” MacKinnon said in an interview on Rosemary Barton Live Sunday morning.
The federal budget, set to be tabled on November 4, is a confidence vote — meaning if it fails, the Liberal minority government could fall. MacKinnon urged opposition leaders to think carefully about whether they want to send Canadians to the polls again.
“The opposition parties will have to determine whether the differences between us are sufficiently large to cause an election,” he said. “We would be reluctant to go to the polls.”
Demands from opposition parties
Each opposition party has begun staking out its conditions for supporting the budget.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is demanding an “affordable budget” that includes broad tax cuts, a deficit cap of $42 billion, and an end to the carbon tax.
MacKinnon dismissed those demands as unrealistic, saying they would “subtract hundreds of billions of dollars of revenue from the federal government.”
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet wants higher federal health transfers, new infrastructure spending, expansion of the rapid housing initiative, and increased Old Age Security payments for Canadians aged 65–75.
MacKinnon pushed back, saying Blanchet’s criticism of the budget’s legitimacy was “a little rich coming from someone with 22 seats in a 343-seat House of Commons.”
Meanwhile, the Liberals appear to have a more constructive dialogue with the NDP.
“I wouldn’t lump Don Davies in with the other opposition leaders,” MacKinnon said, noting that NDP feedback has been more collaborative.
Still, he admitted, “The math is pretty clear — we don’t have a majority.”
Carney signals tough budget ahead
Prime Minister Mark Carney has been preparing Canadians for what he called a “challenging” and “sacrificial” budget aimed at strengthening the economy amid rising U.S. tariffs.
Speaking to students last week, Carney warned that “if we don’t act now, the pressures will only grow,” calling for long-term investments to diversify supply chains and reduce economic dependence on the United States.
MacKinnon echoed that message, saying the government will have to make “hard choices” on spending in order to free up money for key investments.
“We must make our supply chains better so that we can diversify markets east and west,” he said. “We’ll be investing massively on that side, but we will be making tough decisions on the spending side.”
