Bloc to begin talking to other parties about bringing down Trudeau gov’t

Bloc Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet says he will be sending a letter to other opposition party leaders, to initiate talks about bringing down Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s minority Liberal government.

Today was the Bloc-imposed deadline on the Liberals to help pass a pair of bills in exchange for their continued support on confidence votes.

With neither bill much closer to becoming law than five weeks ago, when the Bloc issued this ultimatum, Blanchet has announced he’s making good on his threat.

“This is what we said we would do, and this is what we’re doing,” Blanchet said in French.

Though, Blanchet may be leaving some room for future negotiations, indicating that if the Liberals come to the table with something that meets their demands, or that benefits Quebeckers, they could still offer support.

For the government to fall on a future non-confidence motion – which Blanchet says he’d be ready to vote on at their earliest opportunity – a few pieces would need to fall into place.

The current privilege standoff in the House of Commons would need to end, and the Liberals would also have to lose NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s support, which he continues to say will only be offered on a vote-by-vote basis.

This is a breaking news story, more to come.