Overview
- The Liberal government presents its first budget today without guaranteed votes, with main confidence votes scheduled later this month because the House breaks for Remembrance Day.
- Interim NDP leader Don Davies has left open the option for his seven MPs to abstain, a path that could allow the budget to pass without explicit support.
- Conservatives say they will back the plan only if it is "affordable," setting conditions such as a $42 billion deficit cap, income tax cuts and scrapping the industrial carbon price, while the Bloc rejects abstentions and sets non‑negotiable demands.
- Carney frames the fiscal plan as reducing reliance on the United States after new tariffs, pairing large capital spending on ports, infrastructure, critical minerals and likely higher defense outlays with austerity on government operations.
- Economists commonly forecast a significantly larger deficit in the $70 billion to $100 billion range, and the government has previewed measures including a five‑year refundable tax credit for personal support workers, a foreign credential fund, CBSA and RCMP hiring, women’s program funding and a national school food program.