University of Windsor political science professor Lydia Miljan says despite some certainty, the agreement between the Liberals and New Democrats carries a great deal of risk for both parties.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Tuesday morning that the federal Liberals have reached a "confidence and supply'' agreement with the New Democrats that would see support for his minority government through to 2025.
Miljan says it would mean the Liberals will work towards policies that the two parties have in common.
"And if you looked at their platforms they were very similar on housing, they were very similar on pharmacare," says Miljan. "The Liberals haven't said much on dental care for low income Canadians, but they had in 2019. Certainly there are things where they're in league with or that they agree with and that's what they're going to work on together."
She says it basically means that as long as the government is working towards policy goals that the NDP believe in, they will support the government on confidence motions and budget or appropriation votes for a certain period of time.
Miljan says politically it's dangerous probably moreso for the NDP than the Liberals, but they both have a lot of risk associated with the move.
"Certainly the Conservatives, Candice Bergen today when she had her statement she painted it very clearly as an NDP/Liberal coalition government, so you're going to hear that a lot coming from the Conservatives. Whether it's technically a coalition is another thing, but that's the messaging that they're going to do."
She says all this does is formalize what was defacto happening in Ottawa, but Miljan was surprised about why the NDP felt the need to do this.
"If you don't have a formal agreement you can push they harder from the sidelines, and you can make it on a case-by-case basis," she says. "But ultimately since the 2019 election, the NDP have never voted against the government when it came to confidence motions, when it came to budgets."
The Liberals currently hold 159 of the 338 seats in the House of Commons, while the NDP has 25 MPs.
- with files from The Dan MacDonald Show