While many Canadians continue to struggle to pay for groceries and find a place to live, the federal parliament has been paralyzed for months with filibusters and scandals. Then, just as the new year began, work in Ottawa came to an official grinding halt as Justin Trudeau prorogued parliament until late March.
Many constituents have been writing me about this, some urging me to trigger an election at the earliest opportunity, and just as many suggesting we need a united front in Canada right now to stand up to the Trumpian circus that is going on just south of the border.
And there are a lot of questions in those emails as well. What does prorogation mean and how does it work? Who benefits from it? How and when can a confidence vote be held in the House of Commons that could trigger a federal election? How can we work around these issues and make sure Canada can thrive in very challenging times?
So firstly, both confidence votes and prorogation are powers that can decide, at any time, that Parliament is done, that itsa国际传媒 time to start over. And both powers lie partially or exclusively with the Prime Minister.
Prorogation is invoked at the will (some would say the whim) of the Prime Minister. When parliament is prorogued, everything is put on hold鈥攁ll debate within the House of Commons and Senate comes to a halt, legislation dies on the order paper, and committee work stops. At the end of the prorogation period, parliament usually returns with a new Speech from the Throne and everything begins again with the same MPs that were serving when prorogations was invoked.
While there may be times when prorogation is beneficial to the overall functioning of government, it is often used by the governing party to put the lid on a scandal, change the channel, avoid an impending confidence vote, or all three of the above. Justin Trudeau invoked prorogation in 2020 to get away from the WE scandal. Stephen Harper used it to avoid a confidence vote he knew he鈥檇 lose, then used it again to escape the Afghan detainees scandal.
Confidence votes are another place where the Prime Minister holds much of the power. The government can declare any vote to be a confidence vote and has tried in the past to use that power to blame the opposition for triggering an election that nobody wanted except the government.
A couple of years ago, my former NDP colleague, Daniel Blaikie, introduced a private members motion to clear up this mess. It would have changed the rules of the House of Commons so that if the Prime Minister wanted to prorogue parliament, he or she would have to first face a vote of confidence. The motion also clarified which votes could be considered confidence motions.
I thought this was an excellent idea that would improve the workings of parliament and naively thought that it would pass through the House of Commons. But, while the NDP and Bloc voted in favour, both the Conservatives and the Liberals voted it down. Why? Because they know how beneficial the present powers of prorogation are to the governing party. So when you hear Conservatives loudly decrying the abuse of power by the Liberals today, remember that they will, and have been, just as guilty of those abuses.
So, what can we do to deal with the present crisis facing us with Trumpsa国际传媒 threat of crushing tariffs that could seriously impact all parts of the Canadian economy? The Liberal government is proposing a package of supports鈥攑erhaps similar to those used during COVID鈥攖o keep businesses going and people working while the Trump storm rages. We don鈥檛 really know the details of these plans because, well, there are no parliamentary debates happening in Ottawa, as the Liberals have chosen to deal with their internal dramas rather than put Canadians first.
Jagmeet Singh has said clearly that the NDP would be in support of any plans that would protect the economic well-being of Canadians if that is threatened by Trumpsa国际传媒 actions.
We are open to working together to shape initiatives and quickly pass relief measures for workers if US President moves ahead with devastating tariffs on Canadian goods. The Conservatives have made a similar offer.
The government should sit down with all the parties and plan a path forward. In these times we need all parties to work together to keep Canada strong and prosperous.
Richard Cannings is member of Parliament for South-Okanagan West Kootenay.
