(Ottawa) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is counting on the Bloc Québécois and the New Democratic Party (NDP) to help his minority government move things forward. He anticipates systematic obstructionism on the part of the Conservatives.
Posted at 5:32 p.m.
In an interview with The Canadian Press before Parliament resumed on Monday, Trudeau said he not only wanted more ideologically compatible opposition parties to support the passage of the government’s bills. government.
He wants them to support measures to shut down debate and force a vote on bills if the Conservatives resort to schemes to block the progress of bills, as they often did in his first minority mandate.
“We know and we have seen that the Conservatives will continue to try to play all the partisan games they can, no matter what the consequences are for Canadians. They are much more focused on their own interests right now than they are on the interests of Canadians,” he said.
He said he was open to working with other parties and listening to their priorities.
In the last Parliament, all parties came together to quickly pass legislation creating hundreds of billions of dollars in emergency relief to help individuals and businesses stay afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But on other issues, the Conservatives have routinely used procedural maneuvers to delay or prevent the progress of bills. The Liberals complained of obstructionism, but the Conservatives blamed the government for not managing its own agenda and the other opposition parties, usually reluctant to help the government curtail debate, tacitly followed suit.
Eventually, even the NDP and Bloc grew frustrated with the Conservative tactics, and toward the end of the session they supported the closure of a few bills they considered priorities, with the goal of eventually getting them passed.
Their support came too late for the bills in question – a ban on conversion therapy for Canadians who are members of the LGBTQ+ community and a regulation of online streaming giants – to pass the Senate before the summer recess. . They finally died on the order paper when Mr Trudeau dissolved Parliament in August for a snap election.
Trudeau is hopeful that smaller opposition parties will be less likely to let the Conservatives systematically block the legislative agenda of the new Parliament.
He notes that in the brief four weeks the new minority Parliament sat before Christmas, the Liberals introduced three priority bills they wanted to see passed before the holiday break: one banning conversion therapy, another creating new targeted pandemic relief programs and a final one implementing paid sick leave for federal workers and cracking down on harassment of healthcare workers.
All three passed through the House of Commons and the Senate at lightning speed. Along the way, the NDP supported closing debate to force a vote on resuming hybrid sittings of the House and did the same to curtail debate on the sick leave bill.
“The fact that we’ve been able to work together with two of the opposition parties to do great things is a really positive sign,” Trudeau said.
In fact, it was the Conservatives who pushed the conversion therapy bill through without debate or a vote, a surprise given that a majority of them had voted against the previous version. But it was a strategic move designed to avoid a second losing fight on an issue that had opened the Conservatives up to accusations of being anti-LGBTQ+ – not what the Liberals see as the harbinger of official opposition more collaborative.
In the last Parliament, some of the most contentious cross-party relations and longest filibusters, including those led by the Liberals, took place at House of Commons committees.
But Trudeau hopes that too will change in the new session.
Shortly before the Christmas break, the Liberals won support for a motion that changes the rule for calling an emergency committee meeting. Instead of four committee members being able to insist on a meeting, there must now be four members from at least two different parties.
“We made sure the Tories couldn’t be so obstructive on their own. They are going to have to find active partners to convene committees,” he said.
Unlike the brief pre-Christmas session, the Liberals are not presenting a specific number of bills they want to pass by the end of June, when Parliament recesses for the summer.
But Mr. Trudeau has clearly stated his priorities until then: getting through the pandemic, rebuilding the economy, tackling climate change more forcefully, strengthening the official languages law, advancing reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. , create measures to create more affordable housing, provide support for the cultural sector, combat online hate and compel online streaming giants like Netflix to promote and financially support Canadian content.