After a week of name-calling, bitter rhetoric and bad blood in the House of Commons, the Liberal House leader says all sides need to tone down the “political games” — while still casting blame on who she says is responsible.
Government House Leader Karina Gould said there has been a “change in tone” in Parliament ever since Pierre Poilievre became the Conservative leader. But she added the behaviour from some Conservative MPs since the House reconvened on Sept. 16 has been “really egregious” and is getting in the way of important business.
“The Conservatives have obstructed more than half of the days of the business of the House of Commons simply for their own political purposes,” she told Mercedes Stephenson in an interview that aired Sunday on The West Block.
She noted legislation on key issues like citizenship and immigration, rail and port system changes, and online harms, among others, remain up for debate.
“There are parliamentarians from three parties, as well as some independents, who want to be here to work for Canadians, and there’s one party that is playing political games right now because they think it’s to their partisan advantage.”
Tensions have been high as the Conservatives, riding high in the polls, introduced multiple motions of non-confidence to try and topple the Liberal government and trigger a snap election. The first such motion was defeated Wednesday but another will face a vote on Tuesday, with more promised before Christmas.
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was forced to withdraw comments made during question period Wednesday including using the word “crap,” when he accused a Conservative MP of making “a homophobic comment.” The Conservatives have denied the comment was homophobic in nature.
In the House of Commons, only the microphone of the person rising to speak is active at any given time, meaning any heckling from members with non-active microphones is not captured in official transcripts and is difficult to hear clearly on recordings.
A day later, both Poilievre and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh were reprimanded by House Speaker Greg Fergus for a back-and-forth that happened last week, with Poilievre docked questions for refusing to withdraw calling Singh “a fake, a phony and a fraud.”
Gould defended her own remarks calling Poilievre a “fraudster” and a “bully,” and that of other Liberal MPs who have used strong language against Conservatives, saying “standing up to bullies” and pointing out where she says Poilievre “is not being truthful with Canadians when it comes to his policies” is important and necessary.
Asked what voters should think of how their leaders behave, Gould said the Liberals are focused on showing leadership and again accused the Conservatives of obstructing that work.
She said she’s continuing to work with House leaders from all parties to ensure government business gets done.
That includes the Bloc, which has given the Liberals a deadline of Oct. 29 to meet its demands, particularly around seniors’ benefits, or potentially face losing its support on future non-confidence votes.
“They have been very clear,” she said, while declining to detail where those conversations stand.
“I will say, as I’ve said many times, I obviously don’t negotiate in public. But I also speak with all of my House leader counterparts — even the Conservatives — on a regular basis, pretty much several times a day. That’s how minority Parliaments work, and so that’s what I’m going to keep doing with all of the House leaders in this Parliament.”
Gould also denied the Liberals threatened the NDP with pulling an expansion of the dental care program — a key NDP priority under the now-terminated supply-and-confidence agreement — in exchange for its votes of confidence.
“We’re very proud of the dental care program,” she said. “Whoever is suggesting that is just spreading a rumour.”
Asked how many confidence votes she expects the Liberals to survive, Gould said her focus is on surviving “all of them.”
“My job as the House leader for the Liberal Party is to make it so that we survive those confidence votes, and continue to be able to do the important work of governing the country,” she said.
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