Late last week, Members of Parliament put in a lot of overtime, as they sat for nearly 30 hours voting on 134 separate motions, all of which needed to be passed by the federal Liberal government as part of the spending estimates. Each one of the 134 motions, which were put forward by the Conservative opposition, was a confidence motion.
“In my eight years, there was one that transpired a number of years ago, where the same thing happened,” said Souris-Moose Mountain MP Dr. Robert Kitchen of the session, which started Thursday evening, and went through until late Friday night.
The fact the motions were all confidence votes was key for Kitchen.
“That’s what I’ve heard continually from my constituents throughout the riding – they have none,” Kitchen said of the confidence in the government. “Not only do my constituents not have confidence in this government, I don’t have any confidence in this government.”
Kitchen did note the individual votes could have been done as a single vote, but the opposition was aiming to make a specific point, so they stayed for the full thirty hours to ensure that the message got across 130 times – the opposition doesn’t have confidence in the government.
“I think it’s very important for people to understand that, and see that aspect of where is that confidence,” he continued.
Members of Parliament will continue to sit through until Friday, however, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has stated he is willing to introduce thousands of motions to keep the MPs sitting in Parliament through Christmas.
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