Tories push debate that could force election
Conservatives want a special “anticorruption” committee formed
OTTAWA — The Opposition Conservatives are setting Parliament up for another showdown that could trigger a snap election.
The Tories will press ahead Tuesday with a motion that calls for the creation of a special “anticorruption” committee of MPs that would scrutinize specific COVID-19 relief programs the Conservatives have flagged as being carried out unethically.
Liberal House leader Pablo Rodriguez called their move irresponsible and suggested the Liberals may in turn deem the eventual vote on the motion a confidence matter.
“The Conservative motion that is there on the table, if it was to be debated tomorrow, would send a clear message that there is no confidence in the government,” Rodriguez told reporters Monday.
To style the committee as being focused on corruption, and to compel everyone from the prime minister to rank-and-file civil servants to testify, would snarl the work of government at a time when everyone ought to be focused on the COVID-19 pandemic, Rodriguez said.
So the Conservatives’ gambit can’t be taken lightly, he said.
“So, you know, when you do things there are consequences.” Conservative House leader Gérard Deltell called the effort to paint the Tory motion as a matter of confidence “ridiculous.”
“That you are even entertaining such speculation demonstrates to me — as it would to all Canadians — the desperate ends to which the Liberal government will go to further its coverup of a very troubling scandal which reeks of corruption,” Deltell wrote in a letter to Rodriguez Monday, a copy of which was obtained by The Canadian Press.
As political parties negotiated in public and behind the scenes Monday, the Tories had been coy about which of three potential motions they’d move forward with on their previously scheduled “opposition day” Tuesday, when they get to put a matter of their choice on the House of Commons agenda.