Ottawa — Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberal minority government pulled back from the brink of a spring election collapse on Tuesday, reaching a confidence-and-supply agreement with NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh hours before a critical budget vote was set to proceed in the House of Commons. The deal, brokered through an overnight session of talks on Parliament Hill, preserves the government through at least the autumn sitting and averts what would have been Canada's second federal election in under two years.

The agreement centres on expanded eligibility under the federal dental care program and a commitment to accelerate the rollout of a national pharmacare framework covering diabetes medications and contraceptives — priorities Singh had publicly demanded as the price of NDP support. In exchange, the Liberals secured passage of their C$542 billion budget, which includes significant defence spending increases in line with NATO commitments and new Arctic sovereignty infrastructure investments.

The deal arrives amid growing public frustration with election-promise accountability, with advocacy groups and some editorial boards having called in recent days for binding fiscal transparency mechanisms to prevent governments from making uncosted pledges. Carney acknowledged the pressure directly in a Tuesday morning press conference on the steps of the West Block, saying his government would support a Parliamentary Budget Office reform that requires costing of all major platform commitments before the next election campaign begins.

Singh, flanked by NDP MPs, framed the agreement as a tangible win for working Canadians. 'Millions of people will now be able to afford their insulin and their inhalers because we held this government to account,' he told reporters. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre immediately denounced the arrangement as a 'coalition of convenience' propping up what he called a government with no democratic mandate, and vowed to continue pressing non-confidence motions.

Analysts say the deal buys Carney political breathing room but does not resolve the fundamental fragility of the minority Parliament. With the Bloc Québécois having abstained on several recent votes, the arithmetic remains precarious. Constitutional scholars noted that Tuesday's budget passage, if confirmed in an evening vote, would mark the longest stretch a post-Trudeau Liberal government has survived without triggering an election — a milestone the Prime Minister's Office was reportedly eager to reach before the summer recess.