Is Canada headed for a pandemic election?
Liberals says Tories are blocking government’s legislative agenda
OTTAWA — All federal party leaders maintain they don’t want an election in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the Conservatives appear to be pursuing a strategy that could give the Liberals justification for calling one. Liberals are accusing the Conservatives of systematically blocking the government’s legislative agenda, including bills authorizing billions in pandemic-related aid and special measures for safely conducting a national election.
The Conservatives counter that the Liberals have not used the control they have over the House of Commons’ agenda to prioritize the right bills; other parties say both the government and the official Opposition share the blame.
“They’re playing politics all the time in the House. It’s delay, delay, delay and eventually that delay becomes obstruction,” the Liberals’ House leader Pablo Rodriguez said.
“It’s absurd. I think it’s insulting to Canadians and I think people should be worried because those important programs may not come into force ... because of the games played by the Conservatives.”
He pointed to the three hours last week the Commons spent discussing a months-old, threesentence committee report affirming the competence of the new Canadian Tourism Commission president.
That was forced by a Conservative procedural manoeuvre, upending the government’s plan to finally start debate on the pandemic election bill, which contains measures the chief electoral officer has said are urgent given that the minority Liberal government could fall at any time if the opposition parties unite against it.
A week earlier, MPs spent three hours discussing a committee report recommending a national awareness day for human trafficking — something Rodriguez said had unanimous support and could have been dealt with “in a second.”
That debate, also prompted by the Conservatives, prevented any progress on Bill C-14, legislation flowing from last fall’s economic statement with billions in expanded emergency aid programs and new targeted aid for hard-hit industries.
That bill was introduced in December, but stalled at second reading, with Conservative MPs talking out the clock each time it did come up for debate. After eight days of sporadic debate — more than is normally accorded for a full-fledged budget, Rodriguez noted — Conservatives finally agreed Friday to let the bill proceed to committee for scrutiny. Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole has argued that “modest debate” is warranted on C-14, which he maintains is aimed a fixing errors in previous rushed emergency aid legislation.
Last December, the Conservatives dragged out debate on Bill C-7, a measure to expand medical assistance in dying in compliance with a 2019 court ruling.
For three straight days last week, they refused consent to extend sitting hours to debate a motion laying out the government’s response to Senate amendments to C-7, despite a looming court deadline that was extended Thursday to March 26.
Tories note they offered the previous week to extend the hours to allow a thorough debate, but the government waited five days before tabling its response to the amendments. For Rodriguez it all adds up to “a pattern” of obstruction aimed at blocking the government’s legislative agenda.