(Ottawa) MPs return to the House of Commons on Monday for the first time in five months, and the Liberals have already started hostilities against the Conservatives over mandatory vaccination.
Government House Leader Mark Holland doubts the medical exemptions that would have been granted to an unknown number of Tories to prevent them from being vaccinated against COVID-19. So Mr. Holland wants the House to agree on the six or seven acceptable medical exemptions and that the doctor’s notes of these Conservative MPs be cross-checked against that list.
The Liberals also count among their ranks an elected official who presents a medical exemption, but she has since obtained her two doses, confirmed the House leader of the Liberal government.
At the moment, it is difficult to know who among the Conservatives will be in the House in person on Monday. They were asked to take a screening test after one of their colleagues, Beauce MP Richard Lehoux, had been diagnosed with COVID-19. Mr. Lehoux was present at the Conservative caucus meetings last week. In principle, unvaccinated people should self-isolate after coming into contact with their coworker.
However, the Conservative Party of Canada still refuses to say which of its members of Parliament did not get their two doses – for medical reasons or not.
The session will open Monday with the election of a new president, followed by a speech from the throne to be delivered by Governor General Mary Simon in the Senate on Tuesday.
Liberal MP Anthony Rota, president throughout the last session, could be re-elected after deftly managing to lead the Commons through the first three waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in a new hybrid format that gave MPs the possibility to participate virtually in proceedings.
But presidential elections, in which MPs vote by preferential ballot, can be unpredictable. Mr. Rota faces three Conservative MPs – Marc Dalton, Chris d’Entremont and Joël Godin – as well as another Liberal MP, Alexandra Mendès, and New Democrat Carol Hughes, both of whom were vice-presidents last time. session.
Green MP Elizabeth May is also in the running, but she said in an interview on Sunday that she believes Mr Rota deserves re-election. As a candidate, however, she has the option of delivering a five-minute speech, which she intends to use to draw attention to what she sees as a major mistake made by various presidents over the past 40 years: to allow party whips to dictate who has the right to speak in the Commons.
Only Members who will be in the House will be able to vote for the Speaker.
The House will then have to decide whether or not to resume the hybrid sittings. The Liberals, New Democrats and Greens are strongly in favor of maintaining the hybrid format, but the Conservatives and the Bloc want the Commons to fully return to normal in-person procedures.
Because there is no unanimity on how to proceed, the matter will likely have to be put to a vote later in the week.