Canadian politicians need to work together at this time

Photo: Parliament of Canada

South Okanagan-West Kootenay MP Richard Cannings

While many Canadians continue to struggle to pay for groceries and find a place to live, the federal parliament was paralyzed for months with filibusters and scandals. Then, just as the new year began, work in Ottawa came to an official grinding halt as (Prime Minister) Justin Trudeau prorogued parliament until late March.

Many of my constituents have written to me about that, 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” going on south of the Canada-U.S. border.

There are also 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 those issues and make sure Canada can thrive in very challenging times?

So first, both confidence votes and prorogation are powers that can decide, at any time, that Parliament is done and that it’s time to start over. 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—all 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 who were serving when prorogation was invoked.

While there may be times when prorogation is beneficial to the overall functioning of government, it is often used by a governing party to put the lid on a scandal, change the channel, avoid an impending confidence vote or all three of the above. Trudeau invoked prorogation in 2020 to get away from the WE scandal. (Former prime minister) Stephen Harper and his Conservatives used it to avoid a confidence vote he knew he’d lose and 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 nobody wanted, except the government.

A couple of years ago, my former NDP colleague, Daniel Blaikie, introduced a private members motion to clear up that mess. It would have changed the rules of the House of Commons so if the prime minister wants 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 it was an excellent idea that would improve the workings of parliament and naively thought it would pass through the House of Commons. But, while the NDP and Bloc Quebecois voted in favour, both the Conservatives and the Liberals voted it down. Why? Because they know how beneficial the present power of prorogation is to a governing party.

So, when you hear Conservatives loudly decrying the abuse of power by the Liberal government today, remember have been, just as guilty of those abuses.

So, what can we do to deal with the present crisis facing us with (U.S. President Donald) Trump’s threat of crushing tariffs that could seriously impact all parts of the Canadian economy? The federal government is proposing a package of supports—perhaps similar to those used during COVID—to keep businesses going and people working while the Trump “storm” rages. We don’t really know the details of these plans because, well, there are no parliamentary debates happening in Ottawa, because the Liberals have chosen to deal with their internal drama (picking a new leader) rather than put Canadians first.

(NDP Leader) Jagmeet Singh said clearly the NDP will support any plans to protect the economic well-being of Canadians, if that well-being is threatened by Trump’s actions. We are open to working together to shape initiatives and quickly pass relief measures for workers if the U.S. 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 the NDP MP for South Okanagan-West Kootenay

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.