Federal election avoided by budget passing House by 2 votes

Mark Carney’s liberal minority is avoiding a forced federal election by managing to pass its budget by a slim margin.

The vote passed 170 to 168, with support from all Liberal members of parliament (aside from the Speaker, who was voted as a Liberal but serves a non-partisan role and only votes on the instance of a tie) and the lone Green Party representative.

Four members of opposition parties abstained from the vote, two of the New Democratic Party’s seven members abstained as well as two from the Conservative Party of Canada. Ministers Andrew Scheer and Scott Reid were not in their seats at the time of the electronic vote but submitted physical votes after the electronic votes were counted to reach the total of 168 against.

Budget votes are treated as confidence votes. If the governm