Bloc Will Vote to Prop up Liberals - Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet, said he does not have confidence in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's minority government, but believes he can use the situation to push for his party's priorities.

Leader says he will oppose Tory motion to bring down Trudeau government. Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet, said he does not have confidence in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's minority government, but believes he can use the situation to push for his party's priorities.

- By Tonda Maccharles and Alex Ballingall

Saved by the Bloc. Bloc Québécois Leader Yves François Blanchet was quick to deflate anticipation over a Conservative push to topple the Trudeau government on Wednesday, stating that his party will vote to save the Liberals from an immediate election that the Tories so keenly desire. Without prompting from reporters, Blanchet strode to the microphone outside the House of Commons to say Bloc MPs will not vote to topple the government since voting with the Conservatives — riding high in the polls for more than a year — would simply help Pierre Poilievre replace Justin Trudeau as prime minister.

“The Bloc Québécois is in service of the Québécois. It’s not in service of the Conservatives,” he said in French.

Blanchet said he does not have confidence in Trudeau’s minority government, but believes he can push it on his party’s priorities, including a boost in pension payments to seniors.

“And if the Liberals don’t deliver our demands, we will have a lot of time to make them fall,” he said.

Earlier, Poilievre vowed to present a straight-up vote of non-confidence in Trudeau and the Liberal government next week. The wording, according to his office, is to be stripped of any reference to a “carbon tax.” The Conservative motion will ask the House of Commons to vote in favour of the following: “The House has no confidence in the Prime Minister and the Government.”

In French, Poilievre made no reference to the Liberals’ carbon pricing regime being at the crux of his attempt to bring down the Trudeau government. Poilievre said it would be a motion the Bloc Québécois should support. “The Bloc will have to decide if it is going to keep in power the most centralizing, costly and expansionist prime minister in the country’s history,” he said.