Trudeau was surprised by the NDP's shift to support a carbon price

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OTTAWA — The New Democrats are facing political backlash over carbon pricing, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau acknowledged Friday, but he doesn't understand why they're having second thoughts.

The NDP has long supported the idea of ​​putting a price on pollution, even campaigning for it in the 2019 election.

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But this week the party said carbon pricing was “not the be all and end all” and called on prime ministers to come up with new ideas to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

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New Democrat MPs also backed a non-binding Conservative motion in the House of Commons that would have required Trudeau to sit down with provincial and territorial leaders within five weeks to discuss policy.

“It's not a few conservative politicians and prime ministers who are going to stop me from continuing to fight climate change,” Trudeau said Friday in Vaughan, Ont., outside Toronto.

“That's why I don't fully understand the NDP position and the rejection of affordability measures and the fight against climate change.”

The Conservatives argue that carbon prices make Canadians unaffordable, while the Liberals argue that rebates from pollution prices mean most Canadians end up with more money at the end of the day.

That leaves New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh between a rock and a hard place, Trudeau suggested Friday.

“I feel for the NDP and Jagmeet. This is a difficult moment. There are political winds. There is a lot of political pressure,” he said.

“I certainly feel it, everyone should feel it, people who are concerned about affordability, people who are concerned about climate change.”

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But that shouldn't stop the NDP from sticking to the policy position it's held for years, Trudeau said.

“I understand the political pressure on the NDP leadership right now and the challenges of taking an unpopular position, but doing the right thing has to be something that progressive voters in this country can count on.”

The NDP hasn't changed its policy, Singh said, but it won't say it supports a federal carbon price.

“The New Democrats are looking at ways to make life more affordable for people and to urgently tackle the climate crisis,” Singh said in a statement that did not directly respond to Trudeau's comments.

He also accused the Conservatives of ignoring climate change and accused the Liberals of using the climate debate to divide the country.

Meanwhile, conservatives say Singh is trying to mislead Canadians about his support for the policy.

“But we won't let him forget and we won't let him try to deceive Canadians,” Conservative Leader Pierre Pouillevre said in a post on X.

The Tories have introduced more than 20 motions in the House under Polièvre to remove the federal carbon price. The PDP voted against all but two of them.

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But now, with nearly a quarter of the NDP federal caucus either dropping out or saying they won't seek re-election, the Conservatives are blaming Singh, calling him “a weak leader trying to escape his record.”

The NDP has made political gains as part of Trudeau's political deal with the minority Liberals, notably in the national pharmaceutical and dental programs.

But so far, there is little evidence from polls that these gains translate into support at the ballot box.

Meanwhile, the Conservatives are eyeing NDP seats in northern British Columbia and Ontario, where their relentless campaigning on the Liberals' cost of living and pollution is resonating.

They were determined to make life difficult for the ruling party on Friday, however, as they voted to halt progress on a Liberal job-creating bill.

During the press conference, Trudeau had to look at his cellphone several times to cast a virtual vote in the House, as did the ministers of finance and housing.

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