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OTTAWA — It’s confidence time again in the House of Commons.
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Conservatives will soon put forward three confidence motions after the Speaker of the House of Commons ruled that the Liberals will face four opposition days in the coming week, temporarily ending a two-month filibuster.
In a statement to the National Post, Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer confirmed that the first confidence motion will be debated on Thursday.
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“Common sense Conservatives are eager to end Canadians’ suffering after nine years of Justin Trudeau and are giving Sellout Jagmeet Singh yet another opportunity to put the people before his pension and vote non-confidence to trigger a carbon tax election,” Scheer said.
The party introduced its motion last week, using NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s own words by stating “the Liberals are too weak, too selfish and too beholden to corporate interests to fight for people”.
“The House agrees with the leader of the NDP and the House declares that it has lost confidence in the Prime Minister and the government,” reads the motion.
The Bloc intends to support the Conservatives, while the NDP does not appear inclined to do so. If the Liberals survive such a vote, the Conservatives promised to put forward two more confidence motions on Monday and Tuesday of next week.
The Conservatives have already tried twice to bring down the government this fall. Each time, the NDP came to the Liberals’ rescue.
The NDP will have an opposition day on Friday and will announce the subject of the party’s motion on Wednesday, but it seems unlikely that the party will introduce a confidence motion.
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The opposition motions will come after months of parliamentary wrangling caused by the lengthy privilege debate. Last week, the Conservatives seemed eager to introduce their motion, but on Monday morning, government House leader Karina Gould’s attempt to allocate the remaining opposition days of this session was rebuked by the Tories.
The Speaker of the House of Commons ruled Monday afternoon that the filibuster would be suspended to give the opposition four days and the House to begin voting on the budget estimates Tuesday night.
One of the main functions of the House of Commons is to grant supply so the government can spend money, but the months-long privilege debate has prevented the House from doing that.
The government needs the money to fund new spending on the dental care program, support for Ukraine and the Canadian Armed Forces.
“This is a fundamental part of what Parliament does. So, despite the ridiculous games the Conservatives are playing to try to obstruct the important work that parliamentarians do on behalf of Canadians, we are going to get this work done,” Gould said Tuesday morning.
National Post
atrepanier@postmedia.com
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