Just how profligate is Justin Trudeau willing to be in his determination to eke out a few more months in office? Is the sky the limit, or does there exist a red line beyond which even this prime minister — who in nine years of power has seldom shown a reluctance to run up debt — won’t go? 

Yves-François Blanchet, leader of the federal separatist party, doesn’t really know, but he figures it’s worth finding out. The end of the New Democrats’ formal willingness to prop up the minority Liberals changed the official dynamic in Ottawa, leaving Blanchet’s Bloc Québécois and Jagmeet Singh’s NDP two plausible reasons for resisting the opportunity to force an election.