May says she’ll vote yes on Liberal budget after Carney makes climate commitment

OTTAWA — Green Party Leader Elizabeth May offered the Liberals a critical yes vote on Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first budget Monday afternoon — just a few hours before members of Parliament decide whether to risk plunging the country into an early election.

Following question period, May told reporters she will support Carney’s fiscal plan after the prime minister pledged his commitment to Paris agreement climate goals in the House of Commons.

The budget vote, expected around 6:45 p.m. ET, is a vote of confidence in the minority Liberal government.

The Liberals need the votes of at least two MPs outside their party — or four vote abstentions from the opposition benches — to pass the budget.

May’s vote now means the Liberals need one more MP to vote with them, or three to not vote at all.

In the House of Commons Monday, Carney pledged for the first time to meet Canada’s Paris climate commitments in response to a question from May pressing him for environmental action.

“This budget puts us on the path for real results for climate, for nature, for reconciliation. I can confirm to this House that we will respect our Paris commitments for climate change and we’re determined to achieve them,” he said.

May said last week she couldn’t support the budget without significant changes to environmental policy in the document. But she said Monday Carney’s “firm commitment” to the Paris targets swayed her.

“Against what I had expected to say to you today, I’m going to vote yes,” she told reporters after question period.

Signed in 2015, the Paris agreement calls on countries to limit greenhouse gas emissions to keep average global warming to well below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. For Canada, that includes a 2030 target to cut emissions to 40 per cent below 2005 levels.

Carney added the government will release its nature strategy “in the coming weeks.”

Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said the budget’s fate is a question for the opposition, not the government.

“We delivered for Canadians and I hope they can feel the mood of the nation. Canadians want to go forward,” Champagne told reporters on his way into Parliament on Monday.

Liberal MP Wayne Long said the government has its “fingers crossed.” MP James Maloney, who chairs the Liberal caucus, said he can’t see the budget failing because Canadians don’t want another election so soon after the last.

“Fingers crossed, but I don’t think we need to cross our fingers,” Maloney said.

The Conservatives, meanwhile, kept up their steadfast opposition to the Liberals’ spending plan on Monday.

Conservative MP Ziad Aboultaif told reporters he expects every member of his caucus to vote against the budget.

Speaking in Toronto, Ontario Premier Doug Ford urged federal MPs to pass the budget, saying it’s in the “best interest of the country.”

“It doesn’t matter what political stripe you’re from. We need to work as Team Canada right now,” Ford said at Queen’s Park on Monday.

While the Conservatives and Bloc Québécois have indicated they will not support the budget, four Conservative MPs did not vote on amendments to the budget last week that were considered confidence matters.

While most cited technical issues or other reasons to explain their absence from the vote, Alberta Conservative MP Matt Jeneroux did not. Jeneroux announced his intention to resign as an MP earlier this month amid rumours he was being courted to join the Liberals.

Jeneroux’s initial resignation announcement did not give a date for his departure. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre later said on social media that Jeneroux will be resigning in the spring. Following Poilievre’s statement, Jeneroux said he still didn’t have a date for his departure but it would be “likely this spring.”

A number of Conservative MPs released social media videos on Monday pledging to vote against the budget.

Garnett Genuis, the party’s jobs critic, said the budget “smashes records for deficits” and argued that former prime minister Justin Trudeau made the same promises about government deficits driving economic growth.

“You know this at home, you know that our economy, that everyday Canadians are worse off after 10 years of Liberal government,” he said.

Conservative MP Andrew Lawton said the government failed to tackle problems with affordability in its fiscal plan.

“We cannot support this budget, we will not support this budget. We’re fighting for you, we’re fighting for affordability,” he said.

Interim NDP leader Don Davies said his caucus members would use last week’s time away from Ottawa to speak with constituents before making a final budget decision.

NDP MPs have said while they are worried about public sector job losses through the budget, that must be balanced against the potential for private sector job creation from the major infrastructure projects being advanced by the federal government.

The budget also contains a handful of measures NDP MPs have been pushing for, including a Filipino community centre in Davies’ Vancouver Kingsway riding and money for a national aerial firefighting fleet.

Nova Scotia MP Chris d’Entremont crossed the floor from the Conservatives to the Liberals on Nov. 4, the day the budget was tabled, placing the Carney government two seats away from a majority.

The Liberals presented their budget as a plan to spend less and invest more in the face of U.S. tariffs.

After taking Ottawa’s cost savings goals into account, the budget proposes nearly $90 billion in new spending over five years, much of it focused on responding to the United States’ trade disruption.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 17, 2025.

— With files from Sarah Ritchie and Craig Lord

David Baxter and Kyle Duggan, The Canadian Press