As the end of the fall session of parliament comes to a end I think of Tom Cruise’s character Jerry Maguire shouting “Show me the Money”. Transpire that to 2023 and perhaps the Prime Minister saying to Pierre Poilievre “show me your plan”. You now have a government that’s run dry of ideas or knows its defense of policy is full of enough holes it can fill Albert Hall; the government has run aground.
Their only escape? “Show me your plan!”.
These calls come in question period in press conferences and in scrums. This tactic has been used for generations. It doesn’t matter who the governing party is, at some point in the term of a government, they will demand to know what plan the opposition party has for Canadians.
Let’s be clear, the Opposition party is under no obligation to show its cards or reveal party platforms before an election. The real obligation is with the government to prove their plan is working. It is done to indicate to the voters and party supporters that the government is dry of ideas and as the opposition, they are a government in waiting anf have been thinking and putting together ideas that would form part of an election platform.
Sometimes though the Opposition can use this opportunity strategically.
Questions posed in the House, Opposition Motion Days and attacks at the government will give some indication, and in a rare case fully present a policy platform. In the case of the Pierre Poilievre Conservatives the leader has been very clear that he would “axe the carbon tax”. That has been the theme in motions, bills, and questions. It has even been suggested by the Opposition Leader as the theme of the next election and the ‘ballot box’ question.
Most times the opposition won’t lay out a plan simply because they are in opposition and likely anything they say would be scoffed by the government OR, better yet the government would use their idea and call it for their own.
The latter was the case recently the Trudeau government has used proposed legislation from the federal Conservatives in their own government bills.
In June 2023, Conservative MP Ryan Williams tabled a Private Members Bill (PMB), C-339 to address the Competition Act. It was never debated in the house. Instead, C-339 was copied and pasted into the Government Bill C-56 which was tabled in September 2023. As the House Speaker, The Hon. Greg Fergus stated in the house on October 19th, “Bill C-339 contains only two clauses, which are identical to the clauses 9 and 10 in C-56”.
For those that are not familiar the opportunities non-Ministerial MPs have, PMB’s are precious to a Member of Parliament. They are the only mechanism for a MP to introduce a Bill or a Motion that is important to them or their community.
In this case, the Liberal government claimed C-339 as its own in C-56 and took Mr. Williams PMB away from him. MP Williams asked the speaker to have his PMB slot returned to him; there has been no ruling on this point of privilege from the Member from Bay of Quinte.
September 28th, as the affordability crisis was hitting Canadians hard the Conservatives introduced an Opposition Day Motion that, if passed, would have had the government introduce legislation to have the carbon tax repealed on home heating and on gas and, groceries. The motion was defeated in the House of Commons on October 5th. Was it though?
October 6th, one day after the vote on the Conservative motion, the Liberals announced a pause on the Carbon tax for Canadians using oil to heat their homes. The move by the government affected mainly Atlantic Canadians. The government in one announcement put in place one portion of what the Conservative motion asked for, get rid of the Carbon Tax on home heating.
Here again we see the government take (part of) an idea from the Conservatives. In this case it suited the Liberal need to stem the tide of support for the governing party from slipping even further. If there were hopes this would work, it created a bigger problem that it made the government was backtracking on their carbon tax as their signature policy for reducing emissions in Canada.
I fully expect the calls for the conservative plan will continue, and they will, for the most part will go unanswered until the election. However by listening closely, watching, and reading the news while the leaders are making headlines voters can get a sense of which way the wind will be blowing for any of the political parties looking for stake early ground in the lead up to the 45th General Election in 2025*
*Any bets on the election going earlier?
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