Marc-Aurèle-Fortin MP optimistic about minority Carney government surviving
Despite the possibility of a federal election being triggered before the end of this year while the Carney Liberals hang on by a thread as a minority government, Marc-Aurèle-Fortin Liberal MP Carlos Leitão says he considers a federal election in 2026 to be unlikely.
‘Not what we want’
“It’s certainly not what we want,” the former Quebec Liberal finance minister and ex-Bank of Canada board member said in an interview with The Laval News.
“We were elected to govern and we are governing,” he said, while acknowledging at the same time that 2026 will also be the year of a Quebec provincial election.
“The times are complicated. It is time for us all to stick together. We finally voted a budget. We manage to get the consensus in the House of Commons and so the budget is going through and that’s good. So, we want to govern.”
A difficult election call
Still, Leitão conceded that given the current global instability and its impact within Canada, it would be difficult for him to say whether the minority Liberals would be able to hold on to the end of 2026 without having to call an election.
Despite this, he was optimistic about the Carney government surviving. “We never know,” Leitão said. “Being in a minority, we are always susceptible to a motion of non-confidence. But honestly, I don’t see it [an election] in 2026.”
By next April 28, it will have been exactly a year since the last federal election when the Liberals won a fourth term under its new leader, Mark Carney, while again falling short of a majority by a few House of Commons seats. And while some opposition MPs have crossed the floor to the Liberals, the government’s position remains precarious.
Liberals favored in poll results
According to the results of an Angus Reid Institute poll released late last month, two-thirds (64 per cent) overall of those surveyed across Canada said Mark Carney had done a good or great job handling the Canada–U.S. relationship so far – nearly identical to the proportion (63 per cent) who approved of his overall performance as prime minister.
“That approval appears to be translating into improved electoral prospects for the Liberals,” the non-profit public opinion research foundation said. Forty-five per cent of those polled said they would vote for the Liberals in a future federal election, compared to 32 per cent who preferred the Conservative Party. The resulting 13-point lead marked a 10-point increase in the Liberals’ advantage compared to the previous month’s tracking.
According to Angus Reid, Canadians’ assessments of their prime minister continue to trend in a positive direction as Carney nears the one-year anniversary of his takeover of the office from predecessor Justin Trudeau.
Riding’s social housing needs
Of all the issues currently affecting constituents in Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, Leitão said the most pressing is affordable and social housing. “There have been a few projects that are now on the way to getting started – especially in social housing,” he said.
As for privately-developed, for-profit housing projects, he said “that’s fine – there’s a lot of investment there” in that particular sector of the local economy, but the federal government “is also getting involved directly in the construction of social housing,” Leitão added.
Regarding the issue of homelessness, he noted that Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, as a middle-class and mostly residential riding, has so far shown relatively few signs of homelessness, although that could change as conditions evolve.
No signs of homelessness ‘yet’
“I would say not yet,” is how he put it. “But it’s something that we are keeping an eye on, because we see it everywhere in the region of Montreal. And it’s a complex issue. There are many aspects to it. But in the end, it all comes down to housing.
“People have to have access to affordable or subsidized housing,” he continued. “And at the intersection of housing and mental health, people also need assistance like social workers. They need the tools so they can stay. Because it’s not just the question of finding an apartment, but to also create the environment that allows them to remain in those apartments.”
