Poilievre calls on House to back Singh's 'wise' words in no-confidence motion

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre asks a question during Question Period in the House of Commons in Ottawa on Wednesday, Dec.4, 2024. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick)

OTTAWA -

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says he agrees with NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh on one thing: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberals are too weak to fight for Canadians.

Poilievre kicked off debate in the House of Commons Thursday on a cheekily worded Conservative motion designed to use Singh's own words against him.

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The motion quotes some of Singh's harshest language against the Liberal government along with his staunch support for organized labour.

Poilievre told the House his non-confidence motion will afford MPs the chance to vote on the "wise things that he said" when it's expected to come up next week.

He said if Singh votes against it, that means "he does not want to take responsibility" for his words and have voters "judge his record and his plans."

The Conservative opposition motion quotes Singh accusing the Liberals of being "too weak, too selfish and too beholden to corporate interests to fight for people," and that the Liberals will always ensure "unions have no power" by stepping in to stop labour disputes.

That came after Ottawa's recent interventions to end disruptions by striking rail and port workers by asking the Canada Industrial Relations Board to intervene.

But Singh has said he won't play Conservative games and will vote against the motion.

In the back-and-forth, NDP MP Matthew Green scoffed at Poilievre's remarks and accused him of cosplaying as a supporter of organized labour.

At one point, Liberal MP Mark Gerretsen accused Poilievre of using a prop, which is against House rules, to troll the Liberals. As Poilievre held onto his speaking notes, he had conspicuously placed at the bottom of the stack of papers a New York Times article featuring a large photo of Foreign Minister Melanie Joly and a headline suggesting she could be Trudeau's successor.

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But it wasn't just the Conservatives playing tactical parliamentary shenanigans on Thursday.

A surprise move by the NDP forced a debate on abortion access to delay the Conservative motion and siphon away House of Commons airtime on it Thursday.

Ahead of Poilievre's motion coming up, NDP MP Heather McPherson suddenly seized the parliamentary remote control and changed the channel by springing a debate on a Foreign Affairs Committee report tabled in the House.

McPherson also used the report, about Canada's global assistance for sexual and reproductive health rights, to pivot to domestic abortion issues by accusing the Conservatives of being beholden to abortion opponents and the Liberals of failing to protect access to services.

"The Liberals are too weak to stand up to premiers -- those conservatives premiers -- who are restricting access to women's health care," she said.

When the Tories attempted to return to the regular scheduled programming, the Liberals and NDP ganged up and voted against them, further delaying the Conservative motion.

The Tories charged that the NDP had hijacked the House agenda to protect Singh from a tough spot.

Conservative House leader Andrew Scheer said it was a "desperate attempt to limit debate" through a "procedural trick."

The Liberal government will face a raft of opposition motions in the coming days, typically a raucous and intensely partisan time in Parliament before MPs head home for the winter holiday break.

The Conservatives have two more opposition days to introduce motions in addition to the one tabled Thursday, and the NDP has one.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 5, 2024.