Liberals lean into NDP deal with move toward union-boosting legislation

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The Conservatives like to bait the Liberals over their parliamentary alliance with the NDP, but Justin Trudeau’s government is leaning into it.

On Wednesday, the Liberals took a step toward legislation banning replacement workers during strikes, and Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan made the announcement beside his NDP critic, Alexandre Boulerice, who declared it “historic.”

This wasn’t yet an unveiling of legislation – that is promised for next year – but merely the launch of consultations. Still, Mr. O’Regan was proclaiming his absolute commitment to the kind of union-boosting legislation the NDP has been seeking for years, and more or less shrugging off the complaints of the business community.

And the funny thing is that Mr. O’Regan seemed only too happy to give the New Democrats credit. That way, he could take a big chunk of it for Mr. Trudeau’s government, and make an appeal to unionized workers.

“We’re going to be talking about strengthening Canada’s labour movement,” Mr. O’Regan said at the start of his news conference.

That’s a pretty good sign that Liberal strategists aren’t too worried about the Conservatives painting them with an orange NDP brush.

The “supply and confidence” agreement that the Liberals and NDP hammered out in March was a way for both parties to buy time before a general election. The Liberals agreed to some NDP policy proposals, and the NDP agreed to vote for Liberal budgets until June, 2025. An alliance was forged.

The Conservatives argued that it was a cynical survival deal. They still like to taunt the Liberals by calling them New Democrats. But if you watched Question Period in the House of Commons on Wednesday, you saw Mr. Trudeau using the NDP deal as a shield.

When Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives attacked the Liberals over inflation, Mr. Trudeau retorted – as Liberals do every day – that if the Tories really cared about inflation, they wouldn’t oppose the government’s move to fund dental care for children of low-income families, or a $500 benefit for low-income renters. Both of those measures came from the deal with the NDP.

One reason Mr. Trudeau might want to tout NDP-inspired measures is electoral math. Liberals win when they win over NDP supporters.

Mr. O’Regan’s union solidarity day has a more specific target – union members and workers who feel employees should have more negotiating power. Political parties, including Mr. Poilievre’s Conservatives, see them as a target market of potential swing voters.

The NDP has a history of ties to unions, but the federal Liberals have in recent decades made inroads with private-sector unions and their members. In Ontario, Premier Doug Ford’s strategists credited their efforts to win unions and union members – and more generally, blue-collar men – for the Progressive Conservatives’ landslide win in June.

On Wednesday, Mr. O’Regan was out to tell the country that he is on the side of the workers.

He was only launching consultations on legislation about replacement workers, aka anti-scab laws, and it only applies to federally regulated workers, a relatively small portion of the labour force. But he committed to the goal unequivocally and argued that banning employers from hiring replacement workers would make labour disputes less hostile and dangerous and help workers get better pay when they feel they deserve it.

There will be business leaders who fear it will tip the balance to allow striking workers to extract concessions for higher pay, especially since labour markets are tight at the moment and inflation is higher this year than it has been for decades. “I don’t think they’re entirely happy about it,” he said, apparently unperturbed by the fact. “I think that’s fair to say.”

The Liberals’ enthusiasm for this kind of legislation might seem peculiar because Mr. Trudeau’s government voted against a similar NDP proposal in 2016. But the Liberals don’t blush at such pragmatic conversions. “We’re all now on the road to Damascus,” Mr. O’Regan said.

Many New Democrats, however, privately seethe at Liberals taking credit for NDP proposals. They have to publicly laud Liberal moves to adopt them, and then they fight to claim credit. The Liberals don’t seem to worry that they will succeed.

At the moment, the Liberals aren’t running away from their deal with the NDP – they are running with it.