MPs finally left the House of Commons late Friday night after voting for more than 24 hours straight, fulfilling a Conservative promise to stall the Liberal government’s legislation with an avalanche of votes unless it agrees to scrap parts of its carbon tax.
The Tories forced delays by prompting 135 votes in the House, most of them on the government’s budgetary estimates. The result was round-the-clock voting that began Thursday evening and went late into Friday night.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke before the final vote, which ended just after 11:30 p.m. ET.
“For the past 30 hours, parliamentarians from every corner of this country have been standing and voting and engaged in this House, representing their constituents, focused on implementing their vision for the future of this country,” Trudeau said.
In response, Conservative MP Rick Perkins said he would like “to remind Canadians that the Liberals and NDP just voted 134 times to increase the cost of everything.”
NDP House Leader Peter Julian thanked parliamentary staff for their hard work, prompting a standing ovation from MPs from all parties.
As proceedings moved into Friday evening, Deputy Speaker Chris d’Entremont hinted at how MPs were holding up when he struggled to remember the name of an individual member’s riding.
“The honourable member for …,” d’Entremont began, waving his hands as he tried to remember the riding name.
“It’s been a long day.”
According to Parliamentary rules, the calendar day doesn’t change until the House officially adjourns. Because MPs sat overnight, the House still considered it a Thursday session — even though the voting took up most of what the rest of the world considered Friday.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre rises to vote on a motion during a session that went through the night in the House of Commons. The House calendar is still marked as Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)
Earlier this week, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre promised the Liberals “will have no rest until the [carbon] tax is gone.”
But as voting kicked off Thursday, the Liberals and NDP criticized Poilievre for ducking out of the House that evening to attend a fundraiser in Quebec.
Poilievre later visited with members of the Montreal Jewish community at a synagogue that was recently hit by Molotov cocktails before attending Hanukkah events in the city, a party spokesperson told CBC News on background.
MPs took note of his absence from the House on Thursday evening. Some began chanting, “Where is Pierre?” at the Conservative benches.
‘Refrain from that kind of fun,’ deputy Speaker tells House
Deputy Speaker Chris d’Entremont warns MPs not to chant leaders’ names in the House of Commons.
Conservatives responded with chants of, “Where is Trudeau?” The prime minister was also absent earlier Thursday evening but arrived later and could be seen voting throughout the early morning hours.
D’Entremont promised to have MPs removed if the chanting continued.
The Conservative leader returned to the House shortly after 1 a.m. on Friday and stayed until just after 6 a.m. to participate in voting. While away from the House, he appeared to have participated in votes virtually.
In a speech to his caucus that was posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, Poilievre acknowledged the marathon vote was challenging.
“I want to thank all of you for the energy that you’re putting in,” he said early Friday. “I know this is not easy. It’s extra time away from family, it’s hard on your health, but we have to make a point. We said we would fight to axe the tax.”
Fast food and occasional naps
The House smelled of fast food as voting stretched from Thursday into Friday. Health Minister Mark Holland showed up to vote in a loud green jacket he said he was wearing to mark the Christmas season.
As voting continued into Friday afternoon, some MPs began wearing more comfortable clothing, including sweaters, jeans and T-shirts.
The chamber was filled with yawns and a number of ministers were seen reading books, while Trudeau was spotted playing a game on his iPad between votes. A rendition of John Denver’s Country Roads could be heard from the government lobby on Friday evening.
At one point, International Trade Minister Mary Ng had to be woken up to cast her vote after she nodded off in the chamber.
MPs react to Conservatives delaying House business
Conservative MP Andrew Scheer says mission accomplished while Liberal MP Karina Gould and NDP MP Peter Julian decry the Conservatives’ effort to delay the Christmas break.
Procurement Minister Jean-Yves Duclos, who sits beside Ng and was distracted by his tablet, also had to be tapped to ensure he cast his vote. He then jokingly grabbed a glass of water and pretended to dump it on his head.
House members voted both in person and virtually. At times during the night, the Liberal benches were three-quarters full, while the Official Opposition benches were more sparsely populated.
Votes to approve government spending are confidence votes: If they don’t pass, the government falls.
All of the votes were won by the government side of the House by large margins throughout the night and into the morning, with the Bloc and NDP siding with the Liberals.
The Conservatives voted against every government estimate, one of which drew criticism from the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC).
The spending estimates for the Department of National Defence include funding for Operation Unifier, an armed forces training mission for Ukrainian soldiers. The Conservatives voted against approving that estimate.
“Canada’s support for Ukraine should be unanimous and beyond political games,” UCC national president Alexandra Chyczij said in a statement.
MPs get silly after marathon overnight House session
MPs embraced the silliness on Friday morning after an overnight marathon session of votes in the House of Commons sparked by a flood of amendments by the Conservatives.
At 8:39 am on Friday, Speaker Greg Fergus told the House that about half of the 135 votes had been dealt with, an announcement that was met with tired cheers and applause from the government benches.
Shortly after that announcement, NDP MP Daniel Blaikie stood up in the House to say, according to his math, the remaining votes will not force the House to sit until Christmas.
“Are there some other votes that we’re not aware of that the leader of the Conservative Party is, or did he mislead Canadians?” he said, referring to Poilievre’s promise to keep MPs voting throughout the Christmas season.
Conservative House leader Andrew Scheer spoke to reporters just before 11 a.m. He said his party had “successfully killed a day of government business” and Conservative MPs “are going to keep doing this until [Trudeau] listens to Canadians and axes the tax.”
House leaders speak after long night
“The purpose of this [is] to do everything we can to hold up Justin Trudeau’s destructive agenda. And if he wants to get out of Ottawa, to get out of town early, he’s going to have to listen to us and take the tax off,” he added.
The Conservatives say they want the Liberals to lift the carbon tax from all home-heating energy sources, pass a bill to grant carbon tax relief to some farmers and exempt all First Nations from the carbon levy, as some chiefs have demanded.
Poilievre put forward a motion calling on the government to meet those demands on Thursday. It was defeated.
Government House leader Karina Gould spoke to reporters after Scheer. She said the tactics the Conservatives are employing in the House would not accomplish any of Poilievre’s stated objectives.
“What the Conservatives are doing right now is so silly and absolutely ridiculous,” she said. “This is not leadership. Mr. Poilievre continues to gaslight Canadians for clickbait.
“There are three parties in this House that believe that climate change is real. There is one that doesn’t.”
Gould said the Conservatives can keep the government voting “all day” and the Liberals will continue to stand up to the Conservatives, whom she described as “bullies.”
NDP House leader Peter Julian said the Conservatives’ tactics do not serve their MPs well and suggested the cost to keep the House operating overnight does not represent value for money.
“What [Poilievre] was trying to do was cancel Christmas, but what he’s really done is cancel his own credibility, I think, over the course of the last few hours,” he said.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.
Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.
A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”
Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.
“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.
In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”
“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”
Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.
Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.
Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.
“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.
“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.
“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.
“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”
“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.
Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.
She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.
Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.
Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.
The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.
Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.
“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.
“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”
The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.
In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.
“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”
In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.
“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”
Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.
Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.
“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”
In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.
In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.
“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”
Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.
“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”
The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.
“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.
“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
