Conservative MPs have kept their promise to obstruct House of Commons proceedings by forcing an all-night voting session in response to Cabinet refusing to scrap parts of its carbon tax agenda.
“We have successfully killed a day of government business,” said Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer during a Dec. 8 press conference. “This is one less day that Justin Trudeau will have to implement his destructive agenda that is dividing Canadians, driving up prices, and of course, his plan to quadruple the carbon tax.”
Mr. Scheer told reporters the Liberals’ carbon tax was making groceries more expensive by increasing costs incurred by farmers and truck drivers. He said the Tories would continue to stall House proceedings until the prime minister grants carbon pricing relief to farmers and exempts all First Nations from the tax.
The move came after the Senate amended Bill C-234, which seeks to remove the carbon tax from propane and natural gas used to heat or cool barns, and to dry grain. Despite opposition by the minority government, the bill had cleared the House of Commons with support from opposition parties in March. However, the amendment by the Senate on Dec. 5 means that the bill’s future is no longer certain, as it needs to go back to the House of Commons for MPs to approve the amendment.
Mr. Poilievre has said that the Liberals used “manipulation and intimidation” to “gut” the bill in the Senate, while the Liberals say the Senate is independent and they have only appointed independent senators.
Government House Leader Karina Gould had proposed the House sit until midnight and then break until 7 a.m. the next day, providing MPs with a “health break.” The Tories rejected the proposal.
PM and Conservative Leader Absent for Part of Night
Throughout the night, Liberal and NDP MPs took to social media to criticize the Conservatives for voting against “critical supports” for Canadians, which Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland called “reckless austerity in action.”Ms. Gould told reporters on Dec. 8 that the Conservatives were continuing to “gaslight Canadians for clickbait,” and that the Liberals would continue standing up to them as the voting session continued into the day. NDP House leader Peter Julian said Mr. Poilievre’s decision to create an all-night vote had cancelled “his own credibility, I think, over the course of the last few hours.”
The Conservatives prompted 135 votes in the House of Commons, most of them relating to government estimates, which MPs voted on throughout the night. Mr. Poilievre was absent from the Chamber for the first part of the voting session, instead attending a fundraiser in Quebec, visiting a Montreal synagogue that was recently hit by Molotov cocktails, and making a stop at Hanukkah events in the city.
His absence caused Liberal MPs to at one point chant “Where’s Pierre?” at their Conservative colleagues in the House. The Tory leader returned to the House shortly after 1 a.m. and stayed until 7 a.m., but could be seen voting on motions virtually while at events earlier in the evening.
Tories responded with their own chants of “Where is Trudeau?” as the prime minister had also been absent early in the evening but arrived later in the night. At around 8:40 a.m., House Speaker Greg Fergus told MPs that about half of the 135 votes had been dealt with.
