Liberals, NDP have tentative deal that would keep Trudeau government in power until 2025

OTTAWA -

The federal Liberals and the New Democrats have worked out a tentative agreement that if finalized, would keep Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government in power until 2025, in exchange for progress on longstanding NDP priorities, CTV News has confirmed.

The deal, worked out by party leadership, is still pending the sign off from NDP MPs, sources told CTV News.

If the deal is made, it would see the NDP caucus prop-up the government in future confidence votes and budgets, in exchange for progress on pharmacare and dental care.

According to one Liberal source who attended an emergency caucus meeting on the subject on Monday night, the agreement is being referred to as “making Parliament work,” but essentially is a confidence-and-supply agreement.

A separate source told CTV News that NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh was running the agreement by his MPs on Monday night.

Both Trudeau and Singh have scheduled media availabilities for Tuesday morning.

Given the Liberals are in a minority position, this agreement would inject years of federal stability allowing Trudeau’s cabinet to continue advancing their priorities without concern of falling on a confidence vote.

The mood in the Liberal caucus meeting where this deal was discussed was described as “positive” by one source.

Since 2019 when the Liberals were reduced to a minority, the NDP have often been the government’s main ally, voting to support their initiatives, but that support had never been formalized.

Given the last federal election was in 2021—seeing the Liberals maintain minority standing in the House of Commons— the next scheduled vote would happen in October 2025.

Reacting to the news of a potential deal, interim Conservative Leader Candice Bergen called the agreement “nothing more than a callous attempt by Trudeau to hold on to power,” and “backdoor socialism.”

“This is an NDP-Liberal attempt at government by blackmail. Nation-building is replaced by vote-buying; secret deal-making over parliamentary debate; and opportunism over accountability,” Bergen said.

The Conservative party will be electing its next leader in September, and should this Liberal-NDP deal go through, the victor would be facing their first few years in the job as leader of the Official Opposition.  

With files from CTV News' Mike Le Couteur