Poilievre asks Singh to pull support for Liberal government to prompt fall election

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has written a letter to his NDP counterpart asking Jagmeet Singh to pull his party's support for the Liberal government so Canadians can go to the polls this fall instead of next year as planned.

"Canadians can't afford or even endure another year of this costly coalition. No one voted for you to keep Trudeau in power. You do not have a mandate to drag out his government another year," Poilievre wrote in his letter.

"Pull out of the costly coalition and vote non-confidence in the government this September to trigger a carbon tax election in October of THIS YEAR. Or you will forever be known as "Sell-Out Singh,'" Poilievre said.

Poilievre said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not go ahead with a "reset" of his cabinet at the government's retreat in Halifax this week — some Liberal MPs wanted a shuffle after the stinging byelection loss in Toronto-St. Paul's — and that means "all the ministers who gave us rising crime, costs and housing remain."

Asked why there wasn't a cabinet shuffle, Trudeau said he will focus on policy over personalities as he tries to boost the government's standing with Canadians.

Trudeau announced a clamp-down on the low-wage temporary foreign worker program that some experts say has spiralled out of control. He also signalled further changes to the country's immigration program could be coming this fall.

As well, Trudeau slapped punitive tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles to support Canada's auto manufacturing sector in the face of state-subsidized cars from that country.

Earlier, Government House Leader Karina Gould said she's confident the NDP supply-and-confidence agreement that keeps the Liberal government in power will hold until its expected end date in June 2025.

"We signed the agreement until the end of June — that's something that has been signed and agreed to, so I'm going to be working on that premise," she said.

That agreement, first signed in March 2022, allows the government to carry on without fear of falling on a confidence vote. If the two parties abide by the deal, there would be no federal election until next summer at the earliest.

Peter Julian, the NDP House leader, was less definitive about the deal's future.

"Leaving the agreement is always on the table for Jagmeet Singh and the NDP," Julian said in a statement to CBC News.

The NDP hasn't yet responded to Poilievre's call to bring down the government this fall.

More to come.