Poilievre threatens to delay MPs’ holidays with House tactics, Gould warns of impact on Canadians

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is threatening to delay MPs’ holidays by throwing up thousands of procedural motions seeking to block the minority Liberal government’s economic legislation until Prime Minister Justin Trudeau backs off his carbon tax.

It’s a move Government House Leader Karina Gould was quick to condemn as “completely irresponsible and completely reckless,” and is warning the Official Opposition leader’s “temper tantrum” tactics will impact Canadians.

“We’re going to put in thousands of amendments at committee and in the House of Commons, forcing all night round-the-clock voting to block your $20 billion of inflationary spending and the rest of your economically destructive plans, until you agree to our demand to take the tax off farmers, First Nations, and families,” Poilievre said Wednesday.

Poilievre made the threat during a morning caucus meeting where his MPs shouted “shame” over a Tuesday night vote in the Senate that saw senators narrowly pass an amendment to the controversial private members’ bill, Bill C-234, regarding carbon tax carve-outs for farming fuels. 

According to the Conservative senators who rejected the change and have been pushing forcefully to see the bill pass, the amendment has essentially “gutted” the bill and has effectively sent it to die in legislative limbo as it’ll have to be referred back to the House.

Poilievre placed the blame on “Liberal” senators appointed by Trudeau, who Poilievre alleged were “intimidated” into voting to carve out the carbon tax relief from the bill.

Trudeau removed all senators from the Liberal caucus nearly a decade ago, and has since been appointing members of the upper chamber through an independent advisory process, though some of his appointees have had past party ties.

“I’ve got news for Justin Trudeau, you’ve ruined Christmas for Canadians. Common sense Conservatives are going to ruin your vacation as well,” Poilievre said. “You will have no rest until the tax is gone.” 

Over the last few weeks, the Conservatives have quietly been putting on notice numerous motions seeking votes on line items of the government’s spending plans and other committee agenda items.

If called, these votes could take up hours of the eight remaining sitting days left in the House calendar during which the Liberals are pushing to pass a few priority bills before a more than month-long holiday hiatus.

Gould said what Poilievre is threatening is “not leadership” and accused him of doing this for “his own personal aggrandizement.”

“It will affect Canadians, because what he is doing is putting thousands of amendments on notice for things like the Sustainable Jobs Act. That’s an 11-page bill. His party has put almost 20,000 amendments on it. And what are those amendments? They’re all jokes. They’re about amending the title, they’re about amending specific words,” Gould said.

“He is not threatening to hold Parliament hostage, but Canadians, because he is a bully and that’s what he is trying to do right now,” Gould said.

The Liberal legislative manager said Canadians should “see him for who he is,” and meanwhile, the Liberal, Bloc Quebecois, NDP and Green parties will continue “working for Canadians.”

In June, Poilievre threatened to filibuster the federal budget bill by calling hundreds of dilatory motions, vowing his caucus was ready to work “all summer long.” 

Ultimately, his party agreed to adjourn the spring sitting two days early.