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Results: 1 - 15 of 185
View Jamie Schmale Profile
CPC (ON)
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise to present e-petition 2690. Almost 7,000 signatures have been collected by a constituent of mine, Brian Kerr from Bobcaygeon, who created this petition to acknowledge that currently there is no federal law that allows elected politicians to be removed from Parliament by eligible voters before their four-year term.
The petitioners are calling on the House of Commons to create a bill of recall election.
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View Gord Johns Profile
NDP (BC)
View Gord Johns Profile
2021-06-07 12:44 [p.8007]
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Mr. Speaker, the NDP, for a long time, has been calling for taxing the web giants, but muzzling a committee is not the way to go.
The minister keeps citing the sense of urgency, but his government has had six years to get a bill tabled and before committee and get the work done. What is so urgent right now, and not getting this right and not letting the committee do its work, when the government has over two years left in its mandate? Is it that it actually wants to go to election and not deliver on the commitments it has made in this budget, like child care or raising the minimum wage? Maybe the government is not serious about all of that.
Maybe the minister can speak to us about whether there is intention to go to election early and leave all of those promises to the wayside when people are counting on them, especially small businesses that are saying they do not want an early election. They want to get back to work and they need us working collectively together. I am hoping the minister can address that.
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View Steven Guilbeault Profile
Lib. (QC)
View Steven Guilbeault Profile
2021-06-07 12:45 [p.8007]
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Mr. Speaker, what I find unexplainable is the fact that throughout the question and preamble of my hon. colleague he did not mention artists once, not once.
Yes, there is a sense of urgency that I am feeling and that our government is feeling regarding the adoption of Bill C-10, but that urgency comes from artists themselves. We have heard artists from coast to coast to coast saying to get Bill C-10 adopted, and there stands the NDP with the Conservative Party saying that they know better than the artists, the technicians and the musicians. I am baffled by the position of the NDP.
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View Luc Thériault Profile
BQ (QC)
View Luc Thériault Profile
2021-05-25 14:53 [p.7323]
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Mr. Speaker, Quebeckers and Canadians do not want an election during the pandemic, not when there are still over 50,000 active cases of COVID-19 in Canada.
Members will vote this afternoon on a Bloc Québécois motion calling on the House to declare it irresponsible to hold an election during a pandemic and on the government to make every possible effort to avoid it.
If the House votes in favour of the motion, will the Prime Minister respect this request, which is in line with the will of the people, and commit to not calling an election during the pandemic?
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View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2021-05-25 14:54 [p.7323]
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Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois's lack of consistency should never come as a surprise.
Last summer, the leader of the Bloc Québécois desperately wanted an election to be called. The Bloc Québécois stands up in the House and continually votes against the government on confidence votes, which means it wants an immediate election.
Our priority has always been, and will always be, to ensure the well-being of Canadians and to find ways to protect them throughout this pandemic. We will continue to focus on that.
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View Luc Thériault Profile
BQ (QC)
View Luc Thériault Profile
2021-05-25 14:54 [p.7323]
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Mr. Speaker, can we put this posturing aside and get serious?
I am asking the Prime Minister to commit to not calling an election during the pandemic because he often ignores the votes in the House. We voted to increase employment insurance benefits to 50 weeks for people who are seriously ill, but the Prime Minister ignored that vote and went with just 26 weeks. We voted to increase health transfers, but the Prime Minister ignored that vote and budgeted no increase over five years.
If the House asks him not to call an election until the pandemic is over, will he commit to respect that vote or will he ignore it yet again?
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View Pablo Rodriguez Profile
Lib. (QC)
View Pablo Rodriguez Profile
2021-05-25 14:55 [p.7323]
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague in the Bloc Québécois should talk to his leader. In the fall, the Bloc Québécois tried to trigger an election by voting against the throne speech. It really wanted an election.
The Bloc Québécois leader even said, and I quote:
If this Parliament has any courage, the days of the current government are numbered. If some of us had courage, the hours of this government would be numbered.
He even went as far as to say that anyone who did not want an election was afraid. Who is telling the truth here, today's Bloc Québécois or yesterday's Bloc Québécois?
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View Claude DeBellefeuille Profile
BQ (QC)
View Claude DeBellefeuille Profile
2021-05-13 10:05 [p.7149]
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Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 43(2)(a), I would like to indicate that all of the Bloc Québécois's speaking slots for today's debate on the opposition motion will be divided in two.
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View Alain Therrien Profile
BQ (QC)
View Alain Therrien Profile
2021-05-13 10:25 [p.7152]
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moved:
That:
(a) the House remind the government that a general election was held in October 2019 and sadly note that more than 1.3 million Canadians, including almost 360,000 Quebecers, have been infected with COVID-19 and that nearly 25,000 people have died as a result; and
(b) in the opinion of the House, holding an election during a pandemic would be irresponsible, and that it is the responsibility of the government to make every effort to ensure that voters are not called to the polls as long as this pandemic continues.
He said: Mr. Speaker, it would be irresponsible to hold elections during a pandemic. I think that this word that we included in the motion, is appropriate. I repeat that it would be irresponsible to do so, when for the last 14 months we have been asking people to keep their activities to a minimum. They are making sacrifices and refraining from seeing their loved ones. Often, parents do not see their children and grandparents do not see their grandchildren. Nevertheless, we are telling people that they have to go vote in spite of all that because it is important to fulfill their civic duty.
Elections are important, but holding an election during a pandemic is like playing with fire. We do not need that. We are not suggesting the end of the pandemic is not in sight. Well, we hope it is, anyway, despite vaccination delays. We are on our way to putting this pandemic behind us.
Just to qualify what I said though, the situation has improved in Quebec, and we are all knocking on wood. However, the situation elsewhere in Canada is problematic. Last week, we had an emergency debate here about the situation in Alberta. Does anyone think Albertans want an election? I doubt it.
Ontario is in the grip of its third wave and is struggling with variants because the Liberal government did not close the borders, which is how those variants got in. The Prime Minister repeatedly said he closed the borders and was being really strict and so on, but 84% of the COVID-19 cases in Quebec are caused by variants. How did those variants get here? Did they leap the Atlantic?
No, they came through the airports because the government did not instruct workers to make sure travellers quarantined. Travellers did not quarantine, and now the pandemic is still here because of the variants. That is the truth of the matter.
After letting the variants in and failing to get vaccines until two months after nearly everyone else, the government is suggesting that holding an election might be a good idea. Of course, it has not explicitly said that.
Mr. Trudeau is going around telling anyone who asks that the Liberals do not want an election.
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View Mark Gerretsen Profile
Lib. (ON)
View Mark Gerretsen Profile
2021-05-13 10:28 [p.7152]
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Madam Speaker, I am sure the very experienced member of the Bloc Québécois knows he cannot use the Prime Minister's name in the House. Perhaps he would want to retract that.
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View Alain Therrien Profile
BQ (QC)
View Alain Therrien Profile
2021-05-13 10:29 [p.7153]
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Madam Speaker, I would like to apologize to the hon. member. I am truly sorry. I have indeed used someone’s name a few times. When I was in the Quebec National Assembly, members never referred to anyone by name. Here we do in some cases, for example during committee meetings. I will try not to do it again.
The Prime Minister keeps saying that he does not want to hold an election during the pandemic. He said on television that the government did not want to call an election, that that is clear and that he can be trusted. It is not clear at all.
Then, the Liberals held a convention, where everyone was celebrating. What were they talking about? All they talked about was an election. At some point, the leader of the government, who says that it is the opposition that keeps talking about an election, did a feature on Radio-Canada. All he could say was “election”. As he spoke about the election, he was as excited as a kid on Christmas morning. He says that we are talking about an election, but I think he is projecting.
Although he says he does not want to call an election, we think he does—maybe a little less now, because the polls are not looking as good.
The Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs worked on an election report during the pandemic. We met with dozens of witnesses, in particular public health officials, professors and people from various backgrounds. They explained that we should not hold an election during a pandemic but if we were going to, they had a few recommendations. Everyone said they did not want to trigger an election.
According to Professor Blais, there should not be an election during a pandemic, and the minority government should not call an election during the pandemic. He also said that a minority government should only call an election every four years. I found that interesting, but I am not saying that I agree. I am merely giving him a nod.
The leaders agree that we should not hold an election. The Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs looked at the possibility, and its members voted unanimously that they did not want an election. The Liberal members on the committee said that they did not want an election. If that is true, why do they not tell their leader? I have my doubts. The government’s good will is as short-lived as a balloon at a porcupine party.
The government says that it does not want to call an election, but that it will introduce a bill. If it does not want to call an election, why is it introducing a bill? I do not understand. We were told that it was just in case. Then, the government brought the NDP on side. When the Liberals asked the NDP members what they thought, they said it was reasonable. They do not want to call an election, but they are introducing a bill to prepare for an election during a pandemic. That is what they said.
The members on the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs were very upset. We worked very hard to issue a report. We wanted to release it quickly to provide clarity. We wanted our work to have a positive impact. However, the government introduced Bill C-19 before we could table our report. What does that mean? It means that we worked hard, but they did not care. They introduced their bill. We were upset and wondered why we were working so hard. Such is life.
I would now like to lend my voice to a few political analysts in order to show my colleagues that this does not come from the member for La Prairie or the Bloc Québécois party member, but rather from analysts commenting on the possibility of holding an election during a pandemic. Political analyst Emmanuelle Latraverse said that the government waited until December 10 to introduce a bill. When was the bill debated for the first time? In March.
They rushed to introduce a bill in December, but the bill was not examined until March. We wondered why they did not wait until March to introduce the bill. That way, we could have started working immediately, and we could have tabled our report. That appears to be too complicated, however.
They said that the bill was introduced on December 10 and never explained why.
Even if this is as important as they claim it is, they did nothing about it until March 8. In the past 51 days there have been only three hours of debate.
All of a sudden the government wakes up, realizes this has become a national emergency and imposes time allocation. Our constituents must be wondering what the motive is here. Why did the government not negotiate and find a compromise?
This type of mismanagement of the parliamentary calendar is what poisons relations between the parties. We are in this position because of prorogation, because of WE Charity. When the government prorogued Parliament, every bill on the order paper died. We had to redo the work and we lost a lot of days. We had to go back to square one because the government decided to prorogue Parliament. Suddenly the government hits the panic button and imposes time allocation.
This is a government of legislative chaos. The Liberals are scrambling. They do not know where they are going. There is not much on the calendar because the government does not know how to manage it. The fundamental problem is that the Liberals are increasingly using closure because they find it hard to manage their bills.
I like what Pierre Nantel had to say once. He said that to pass a certain bill, it seemed that the Liberal members were following a script written by a drama teacher.
Then, Pierre Nantel named the Prime Minister and said that the Liberals' handling of the bill suggested that their sole purpose was to show the Conservatives as always being opposed to everything.
I could go on and on, but, in closing, I would like to say that tinkering with the election law, especially during a pandemic, requires a consensus. We would have needed it, but we are dealing with a government of cowboys that likes to run roughshod over the House, unfortunately.
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View Kevin Lamoureux Profile
Lib. (MB)
View Kevin Lamoureux Profile
2021-05-13 10:36 [p.7154]
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Madam Speaker, if the opposition members are going to continue to vote non-confidence in the government, it is irresponsible for them not to have measures in place to protect Canadians. It is a minority government, which means that we do need to have support from opposition. That is one of the reasons that we were able to get it to the committee stage.
My question for the member is about consistency. Last year, the Bloc Québécois members were demanding and brought in a motion of confidence. They wanted a federal election unless the Prime Minister resigned. The Prime Minister did not resign. Have they changed and now does the Bloc fully endorse the current Prime Minister?
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View Alain Therrien Profile
BQ (QC)
View Alain Therrien Profile
2021-05-13 10:37 [p.7154]
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The Liberals often claim that the Bloc Québécois always votes non-confidence in the government, which can trigger an election. That is what the government does. We vote in favour of bills that will be good for Quebec. When the Liberals introduce bills that are less than good, we vote against them.
The Liberals like to threaten us, saying that a vote against will trigger an election. The government uses confidence votes to push through its bills, which are not good bills. If I could give them a tip, it would be to draft good bills. This way, we would not have to vote against and they would not need to make them confidence votes.
Furthermore, if the Prime Minister stops playing the villain in a bad ethics movie, maybe we will leave him alone at some point.
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View Pierre Paul-Hus Profile
CPC (QC)
Madam Speaker, I have to say from the outset that I agree with the motion moved by our friends in the Bloc Québécois.
However, I would like to know what my colleague thinks about how some people are saying that the Bloc Québécois would not want an election because they are polling lower than they were in 2019 and Bloc members fear they would lose their seats to the Liberals. What does the member have to say about that?
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