threatening to bring down the government is out of character for singh. never in his time of bowing and scraping to the liberals has he hinted at really, truly breaking his deal with trudeau.
the deal between trudeau and singh is a “supply and confidence agreement.” by its very nature, it binds the ndp not to introduce or support any non-confidence motion in the house of commons that would spark an election.
so were singh to bring a non-confidence motion over the rail dispute, he would clearly be breaking his deal with trudeau.
that’s new.
by the time you read this column, maybe canada’s railways will be running again, maybe they won’t be.
on thursday, federal labour minister steven mackinnon signed an order sending the teamsters’ union and the country’s two largest roadways – cn and cpkc – to binding arbitration aimed at ending their lockout/strike.
almost immediately, the teamsters responded by challenging the minister’s directive and continuing their work stoppage at cpkc. they also served a 72-hour strike notice on cn.
you may recall that earlier this summer, then-labour minister seamus o’regan tried to prevent a strike by westjet mechanics by sending that dispute to arbitration, too. the cirb, however, ruled that o’regan’s order was so poorly worded it didn’t preclude the mechanics from walking off the job while arbitration ran its course.