Canada has avoided a holiday-season trip to the polls—just barely.
On Monday night, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s minority Liberal government survived a make-or-break confidence vote, squeaking through with the passage of its first budget.
With the Bloc Québécois lined up solidly against it, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May backed the budget earlier in the day. Excluding two abstentions from each of their parties, both the Conservatives and the NDP strongly voted no.
With May’s backing and several opposition MPs abstaining, the vote narrowly preserved the government from defeat.
The process now moves to the next stage, with Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne set to table a series of budget implementation bills later this week.