The Member of Parliament for Provencher says the Conservatives are anticipating the end of the Liberal/ NDP coalition.

Ted Falk says should their agreement collapse, it will force an election. And, Falk says he likes his party's chances.

"We've seen the Conservatives this year polling as much as 17 points ahead of the Liberals," says Falk. "So, we're quite confident that if an election were called today, that we would actually as Conservatives form a majority government, with Pierre Poilievre as our new Prime Minister."

Falk says there is no telling whether or not 2024 will see a federal election, but he feels it is the desire of most Provencher residents for the Conservatives to form the next government. 

Falk says he is also hopeful that 2024 will see our inflation begin to decrease and the Canadian economy grow stronger. However, it is his opinion that life will only get more affordable under a Conservative government. 

Falk says the Conservative Opposition will be closely critiquing the federal budget in spring, realizing how our nation's debt levels have been tracking over the last eight years. He says eight years ago they were promised a "tiny deficit" of maybe $10 million. Falk says in eight years our debt has increased from roughly $600 billion to $1.3 trillion. 

"We've seen it more than double in eight years," he points out. "Whereas we were promised just very modest deficits and of course, we didn't see that happen at all."

Falk says there is a lot of work to do on affordability. He notes there is a housing crisis in Canada and a shortage of houses in this country. 

"We want to get the economy moving," he says. "We want to make sure that affordable houses are built and especially for lower-income people, that there's places for them to live."

Meanwhile, Parliamentarians are scheduled back in the House of Commons in late January. Falk says when the Conservatives return to Parliament, one of the top orders of business will be to deal with Bill C-234. This is the bill having to do with carbon tax relief for farmers. He notes the bill was held up in the Senate before being sent back to the House of Commons just before Christmas, with amendments. 

"The amendments that they passed in Parliament pretty much gutted the effectiveness of the bill to accomplish what it was intended to do," suggests Falk. "And that is to provide carbon tax relief to our farm communities right across Canada."

Falk says Conservative Senators, led by Don Plett, did a tremendous job of trying to honour the will of Parliament to pass the bill as it was presented to the Senate. 

"I know they studied it, and they debated it thoroughly and Senator Don Plett worked extremely hard to get the Senate to pass it as is," says Falk. "But between the independent Senators and the Liberal appointed Senators, they chose to rather send it back to the House of Commons with amendments."

Falk says when they return to Ottawa, they will look at the bill again and hopefully get the amendments removed.