.In my opinion The PM has been in contempt time and again since 2016 refusing to
answer simple questions ...and sometime reading talking point ad nauseum totally disregarding the questions....TRUDEAU HAS IT COMING
so you can hear there we are returning
to our top story a Throwdown of sorts in the House of Commons today between prime minister Justin Trudeau and conservative leader Pierre PV a debate over BC's drug policy that quickly devolved into personal attacks and ended in Pierre pv's expulsion from the chamber I ask the honorable uh leader of the opposition to withdraw uh that term which is not considered parliamentary Mr Speaker I replace wacko with extremist I'm going to ask the leader of the opposition once again to just withdraw that comment I'll replace it with radical policy I am not asking to replace I'm asking The Honorable member to just simply withdraw I simply withdraw and replace with the aforementioned adjective pursuant to the authority granted to me by standing order 11 I order you to withdraw from the house and from many participation by video conference to the remainder of cting so there is understandably a lot to unpack there who better to help let do that then our front bench with me this evening former New Brunswick liberal Premier Brian Gant he's the CEO of space Canada former conservative Deputy leader Lisa ra is with us she's the vice chair and managing director of global investment banking at CIBC CTV News political analyst and former NDP leader Tom mare is with us as is the globa male senior political reporter ma Walsh hi everybody happy Tuesday I guess we could say we have two very experienced former MPS or members of parliament here so I'm going to start with with both of you uh Lisa was this a big deal what took part took place today yeah it was a big deal um probably not for the reasons that some would think it's a big deal number one because the speaker should not have done what he did he waited in he made a mistake the uh leader of the opposition clearly withdrew he should have left it at that and moved on but he decided to make a point out of it and I think the other issue is the fact that the Prime Minister simply would not answer any questions around a very serious matter with respect to drug use open drug use in British Columbia and and a request from the pre of British Columbia to deal with this decriminalization issue which has taken hold and is very concerning the Prime Minister instead of addressing the issue decided to attack the leader of the opposition and then we end up with the leader of the opposition booted out of the house as he's just trying to bring up the issues around the drug decriminalization and having the debate C bashy you said at the beginning it came out of a debate there is no debate on this policy because the Liberals were absolutely trying to duck the debate and the speaker helped them today so a couple of things out of that Tom uh first it's true that there were direct questions asked of the Prime Minister on BC's ask essentially to re criminalize drugs in public spaces and he did not answer them he did first call uh the Le he qualified the leadership of Pier PV as quote spineless the response from Pier PV was to uh call both the policy of decriminalization RIT large pursued by the federal government in his view alongside the Prime Minister himself wacko that's basically how unfolded and then the speaker asked him to retract that word he said I'd retract it but I'll will replace it with extremist and then the speaker decided to uh kick him out basically the House of Commons and all the conservatives followed what what is your interpretation of how big of a is I agree completely with what Lisa said at the beginning of her answer that Pier PV simply offered up the exact wording that Greg Fergus had asked for I simply withdraw and then he didn't repeat the other words he says and I replace them with what I said before that was the exit ramp that the leader of the opposition the leader of her majest his Majesty's loyal opposition in the house is an extraordinarily important institution before you get to the point that Greg Fergus got to today you've got to go through a heck of a lot of other steps this was not only precipitous for me it was manifestly obviously partisan and I don't come at that lightly I remember when Greg Fergus got caught making a very partisan video I was one of the people who defended him I you know I've been a house leader in Ottawa I I was a deputy house leader both in power and in opposition in Quebec City where it could be very rough and tumble but I've never seen anything like this fashy never in my career have I seen such in my view blatant partisanship from a speaker I think that he's disqualified himself from the position and I am indeed one of the people who defended him when people were calling for his head after that video I said it's a rookie mistake let him prove that he can be autonomous independent act you know fairly with everyone today he failed completely and no surprise of course the black kekua was applauding the speaker for going after the conservatives as was the NDP it's in the natural order of things but overall it was a an awful performance by Speaker Greg Fergus he just lost control today now the conservatives walking out poses a simple problem for them how and when and on what conditions do they walk back in because they're never going to get a majority of people voting to get rid of Fergus but Fergus should do the right thing and simply step down he cannot with any credibility based on my many years experience in both provincial legislature and in the House of Commons he cannot continue to do that job credibly himself he made a huge mistake when PV said I simply withdraw he should have ended it there instead he went after the leader of the opposition unbelievable I've never seen anything like it yeah okay small footnote they all went back in after question period and resumed debate on the ways and means motion around the budget so the world has not totally come to an end Brian the Liberals are characterizing it very differently than Tom did they actually um and and Minister McKinnon on my program earlier said like this is uh emblematic of the degree to which the conservatives are continually degrading the institution of parliament that's how we are framing this how do you uh that yeah I mean I think that would fit the bill of what they would want to have as a narrative of PV essentially saying that he's somebody that attacks institutions and to be fair to some extent he certainly has we remember what he did with the Bank of Canada and frankly that certainly worries me a bit uh it's one thing to sort of say things that you know that will be popular it's a whole other thing when you're attacking institutions that are important so I don't think that was necessarily the case here it felt more like he was definitely just attacking the prime minister so I uh not surprised to hear the Liberals kind of frame it that way because I think it's a way for them to sort of uh try to show Canadians in their minds or at least convince Canadians that uh that PV does sort of attack these institutions that are important um I don't know normally I I agree you quite a bit with with Tom and Lisa I and if I don't it's only Nuance here I I have to disagree I mean there there's not that many rules in Parliament it's not that complicated you just can't call another MP or the case when I was in the legislature MLA a name like you just can't associate some sort of negative qualification to that person so calling somebody a wacko specifically uh just doesn't fly like I think that's like one of the only rules really so I I think Canadians are are usually pretty disgusted with the way our Parliament and legislator uh debate things uh this certainly won't help that's for sure and and it won't help based on based on the the sort of uh the the attitudes and the way that it went from a few people here but but that said I mean one of the only rules is simply you can't say something like you could say the policy is wacko but you can't attribute that to a person uh to to an MP an elected official like that's literally only pretty much the Only Rule of the debate so I I have to disagree I think that PV knows that he's been in Parliament for a long time uh he would know he's not allowed to do that and he just wanted refuse to to say that you know I'll retract and his last retraction I agree the speaker could have grabbed on to it to say okay you know let's just put this thing behind us sure but but he was clearly trying to make a point you know the afor mentioned he wasn't saying it in his thing but making it very clear so that that one I kind of agree that one's a little more nuanced but but at the end of the day he was still obviously talking about the the the sort of insult that he he flung towards the Prime Minister uh just before so look expelling is not great though because I think this makes everybody look bad I think most people aren't really going to watch the debate they're just going to hear that there was this kurur fuffle and it's just going to make people sigh roll their eyes and say they're they they go are politicians not focused on things we care about and just bickering uh I think also kind of underneath the layers of what everyone has laid out ma was what I noticed from the very start of question period today like you could sense that this was not going to um an easy place like it was very personal very quickly um and I sort of feel like it's a harbinger of of things to come it is it's gonna be a long long few months to a year and a half before the next election that's what this question period told me I think that the conser the Liberals were raring for fight from this very Mo morning after the story about the notwithstanding clause and Pier pv's willingness to use it and I think that they have been you know they did not get the wins they wanted and the fight they wanted with the conservatives on the budget after the budget came out they are still looking for that fight with the conservatives and I think they saw this as that opportunity but I think it also the debate more shows some revealing things about the politics behind this it shows that the the liberals do not want to talk about this drug drug decriminalization issue with NDP the NDP are heading into an election they see how unpopular it is they're trying to reverse it and the Liberals are stuck cornered on it now it also shows how confident Pier pev is it shows how emboldened he is not just from that protest visit last week but also just how he is conducting himself he's not backing down he is sort of challenging ever more and so they both are pushing each other further and further and that's what I find so interesting I had a sort of weird feeling as I watched it unfold which is like probably not proper to say or anything Leisa but that uh I don't think it's Trudeau is going to drop out like it it it really felt like they have an actual dislike of each other and of the policies that each would pursue and they want to have that other uh sure I mean from my point of view I'm I'm beginning to feel a little bit embarrassed for the Prime Minister I think he looks desperate he doesn't look as Statesman as he should quite frankly the going after Pierre PV right away on who Pierre met um during a Whistle Stop when he was when he was out campaigning I mean that uh that's not a place in the house you should be answering the questions you don't get to ask the questions when you're when you're in question period or you're supposed to at least try to answer them um and I uh like Mica said I mean this is going to be a long six weeks to bring us into June with this going back and forth and quite frankly Canadians deserve better in terms of policy debate on that issue with respect to decriminalization in BC there is a really serious issue out there that the BC government needs help on from the feds and every day that they aren't dealing with it is another day where people are freaking out I I totally agree with Lisa Tom that the issue is of like it is a national crisis but today what people who witnessed including the group of kids who are behind me who watch QP are now in studio with us was you know the word spineless and wacko employed to frame debate yep and and it's really Unbecoming of parliament but the question is do you throw out the leader of the official opposition for a word if you were to do a scale of one to 10 of bad words wacko comes in at about two and a half uh somewhere close to spineless and somehow Greg Fergus got it in his head that he could boot out Pierre PV and that's where people are letting go here because you're right the the essential issue that was being debated was something that has cost tens of thousands of lives across the country so PV had all of his lines picked out and Trudeau was going to try to Scotch tape him to some American you know shock jock conspiracy theorist and saying you're refusing to denounce him as if that was the job of PV in the House of Commons today PV was on about a big national issue that had cost tens of thousands of lives and where the Liberals had an idea that you could completely decriminalize and give a province the power to do that and now it's blown up and now the the province of of British Columbia and the NDP government there is do everything he can to walk away from this thing because they've got an election coming up and Trudeau wouldn't answer any questions and so yes there's there's frustration but there always is during debates in Parliament you you know I had epic set toos with Stephen Harper but I could never imagine for one second that Andrew sheer were going to stand up and point at me and throw me out in the house it it just doesn't fit it has you know the punishment doesn't fit the crime and and here what happens is instead of defending the institution which is the speaker he has deons the institution he's debased the coin what what is that institution based on trust fundamental rules of democracy respect for others he's even wearing a robe that shows that he's a little bit like the the referee in a game where you've got different you know you're not wearing one of the party sweaters it was as if the the ref in a boxing match jumped into the ring and socked one of the the boxers it doesn't work fashy I hate to cut you off but I just have one minute less than a minute left and I want to make sure Brian gets Brian yeah I mean I still I have to say that I I I disagree I mean I don't think that PV was it's clear that PV wasn't kicked out because he called the Prime Minister wacko it was his refusal to uh retract that comment it's as simple as that and again I mean I I I I I think the idea of having the leader the opposition expelled or or sorry kicked out I should say of parliament uh is not good for anybody I actually I believe it's not good for the the institution it's not good for as you mentioned vashy people that are watching that anyone frankly but especially young people that are watching our sort of democracy in action if we can call it that today um so it's not good for anyone so I'm not I'm certainly not happy that that happened but nevertheless it was based on the fact that he just would not retract and I'm just going to go back really there's there's the one rule you just can't personally insult uh fellow colleague MP or in in the case that I was in fellow colleague MLA and he didn't respect that and wouldn't retract 
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