Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his minority Liberal government have avoided a potential snap election. The Liberals survived a confidence vote in the House of Commons 180 to 146, with the support of the opposition NDP. The vote on Wednesday was over a Conservative motion demanding a special committee on coronavirus aid spending. It comes a year to the day that Mr Trudeau retained power in a narrow election win.

The political drama concerned an opposition motion seeking to create a special parliamentary committee to probe the Liberal government’s pandemic relief spending. That spending included a controversial and now defunct programme designed to connect post-secondary students to volunteer opportunities. That programme was at the heart of the WE Charity affair, an ethics crisis that cost Mr Trudeau a long-time finance minister. Mr Trudeau has apologised for taking part in a cabinet decision to give WE Charity, which had ties to his family, a contract to administer the programme. The charity pulled out of the programme over the summer.(BBC)…[+]