Provencher Member of Parliament Ted Falk is preparing for a new session of Parliament which will begin December 5th. He says the Conservatives held a very upbeat caucus meeting in Ottawa earlier this month and they are ready to hold the Liberal Government to account. Falk adds his party is willing to try and make the minority government work.

"From a Conservative perspective, I think what we want to do is we want to work with the government, if we can achieve some of the things that we think are important to Canadians, especially here in Provencher, but right across Canada. Firstly, we recognize that many Canadians are speaking about the affordability issue. So that's something that as long as the Liberal Government wants to key in on that initiative and make life more affordable for Canadians, I think we're going to work together with them to see if we can achieve that."

Prime Minister Trudeau has already indicated one of his first orders of business will be to reduce taxes for the middle class.

Some of the accomplishments of previous minority governments include Medicare, the Canada and Quebec Pension Plans, the Canada Assistance Plan, the Canada Student Loans program, official bilingualism, the Maple Leaf flag and groundbreaking labour legislation that pioneered the 40-hour work week. Falk acknowledges that minority governments can be very effective.

"A minority government is one where parties are forced to work together because no one party can push through any legislation or any initiative on their own. They do have to work in collaboration with at least one other party. That means there is going to be a broader representation of ideas on any policies that come forward."

But Falk also cautions that the Conservatives will be ready if the government collapses and there is another federal election.

Falk says Prime Minister Trudeau and the premiers also have a big task ahead to try and restore national unity.

"There will have to be collaboration from all the premiers across Canada. In the centre of Canada are four strong Conservative governments; Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. I think Mr. Trudeau is going to have to work very hard with these premiers to restore the national unity that was there before. Certainly these premiers have objectives for their own provinces as far as reducing tax burdens for their constituents and citizens and also making sure that areas like the western part of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, that their natural resources can be exploited to bring wealth and prosperity to their provinces and that there are proper conduits like an energy corridor and pipelines so they can move these resources to market. If the Prime Minister is going to work collaboratively with these premiers, I think then there is a possibility that unity can be restored."