Liberals, NDP criticize Poilievre’s absence during late-night House sitting

MPs have been voting for nearly 24 hours straight as the Opposition Conservatives fulfil a promise to stall the Liberal government’s legislation with an avalanche of votes unless it agrees to scrap parts of its carbon tax.

The Tories are forcing delays by prompting 135 votes in the House, most of them on the government’s budgetary estimates. The party said this will result in round-the-clock voting that likely will last until late Friday night and stall the Liberal agenda.

As proceedings moved into Friday evening, Deputy Speaker Chris d’Entremont hinted at how MPs are holding up when he struggled to remember the name of an individual member’s riding.

“The honourable member for …,” d’Entremont began, waving his hands as he tried to remember the riding name.

“It’s been a long day.”

According to Parliamentary rules, the calendar day doesn’t change until the House officially adjourns. Because MPs sat overnight, the House still considers it Thursday even though it’s Friday to the rest of the world.

Earlier this week, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre promised the Liberals “will have no rest until the [carbon] tax is gone.”

But as voting kicked off Thursday, the Liberals and NDP criticized Poilievre for ducking out of the House that evening to attend a fundraiser in Quebec.

Poilievre later visited with members of the Montreal Jewish community at a synagogue that was recently hit by Molotov cocktails before attending Hanukkah events in the city, a party spokesperson told CBC News on background.

MPs took note of his absence from the House on Thursday evening. Some began chanting, “Where is Pierre?” at the Conservative benches.

WATCH | Deputy Speaker calls for order after MPs begin to chant:

Deputy Speaker Chris d’Entremont warns MPs not to chant leaders’ names in the House of Commons.

Conservatives responded with chants of, “Where is Trudeau?” The prime minister was also absent earlier in the evening but arrived later and could be seen voting throughout the early morning hours.

D’Entremont promised to have MPs removed if the chanting continued.

The Conservative leader returned to the House shortly after 1 a.m. and stayed until just after 6 a.m. to participate in voting. While away from the House, he appeared to have participated in votes virtually.

In a speech to his caucus that was posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, Poilievre acknowledged the marathon vote was challenging.

“I want to thank all of you for the energy that you’re putting in,” he said early Friday. “I know this is not easy. It’s extra time away from family, it’s hard on your health, but we have to make a point. We said we would fight to axe the tax.”

Fast food and occasional naps

The House smelled of fast food as MPs continued to vote past midnight. Health Minister Mark Holland showed up to vote in a loud green jacket he said he was wearing to mark the Christmas season.

As voting continued into Friday afternoon, some MPs began wearing more comfortable clothing, including sweaters, jeans and t-shirts.

The chamber was filled with yawns and a number of ministers were seen reading books between votes. Trudeau could be seen playing a game on his iPad between votes on Friday evening.

At one point, Procurement Minister Jean-Yves Duclos and International Trade Minister Mary Ng had to be woken up to cast their votes after they both nodded off in the chamber.

House members voted in person and virtually. At times during the night the Liberal benches were three-quarters full, while the Official Opposition benches were more sparsely populated.

Votes to approve government spending are confidence votes; if they don’t pass, the government falls.

All of the votes were won by the government side of the House by large margins throughout the night and into the morning, with the Bloc and NDP siding with the Liberals.

So far, the Conservatives have voted against every government estimate. One of those votes came in for criticism from the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC).

The spending estimates for the Department of National Defence include funding for Operation Unifier, a armed forces training mission for Ukrainian soldiers. The Conservatives voted against approving that estimate.

“Canada’s support for Ukraine should be unanimous and beyond political games,” UCC national president Alexandra Chyczij said in a statement.

WATCH: MPs get silly after marathon overnight House session: 

MPs embraced the silliness on Friday morning after an overnight marathon session of votes in the House of Commons sparked by a flood of amendments by the Conservatives.

At 8:39 am, Speaker Greg Fergus told the House that about half of the 135 votes had been dealt with, an announcement that was met with tired cheers and applause from the government benches.

Shortly after that announcement, NDP MP Daniel Blaikie stood up in the House to say, according to his math, the remaining votes will not force the House to sit until Christmas.

“Are there some other votes that we’re not aware of that the leader of the Conservative Party is, or did he mislead Canadians?” he said, referring to Poilievre’s promise to keep MPs voting throughout the Christmas season. 

Conservative House leader Andrew Scheer spoke to reporters just before 11:00 am. He said his party has “successfully killed a day of government business” and Conservative MPs “are going to keep doing this until [Trudeau] listens to Canadians and axes the tax.”

House leaders speak after long night

“The purpose of this [is] to do everything we can to hold up Justin Trudeau’s destructive agenda. And if he wants to get out of Ottawa, to get out of town early, he’s going to have to listen to us and take the tax off,” he added.

The Conservatives say they want the Liberals to lift the carbon tax from all home-heating energy sources, pass a bill to grant carbon tax relief to some farmers and exempt all First Nations from the carbon levy, as some chiefs have demanded.

Poilievre put forward a motion calling on the government to meet those demands on Thursday. It was defeated.

Government House leader Karina Gould spoke to reporters after Scheer. She said the tactics the Conservatives are employing in the House will not accomplish any of Poilievre’s stated objectives. 

“What the Conservatives are doing right now is so silly and absolutely ridiculous,” she said. “This is not leadership. Mr Poilievre continues to gaslight Canadians for click bait.

“There are three parties in this House that believe that climate change is real. There is one that doesn’t.”

Gould said the Conservatives can keep the government voting “all day” and the Liberals will continue to stand up to the Conservatives, whom she described as “bullies.”

NDP House leader Peter Julian said the Conservatives’ tactics do not serve their MPs well and suggested the cost to keep the House operating overnight does not represent value for money.

“What [Poilievre] was trying to do was cancel Christmas, but what he’s really done is cancel his own credibility, I think, over the course of the last few hours,” he said.

Watch: MPs react to Conservatives delaying House business:

Conservative MP Andrew Scheer says mission accomplished while Liberal MP Karina Gould and NDP MP Peter Julian decry the Conservatives’ effort to delay the Christmas break.