John Brassard MP: point of order on March 2022 Liberal-NDP backroom shotgun marriage of convenience

2 years ago
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Credit Instagram's @johnbrassardcpc with this video record of his 22 March 2022 Point of Order regarding the lately announced union of forces by the Liberal party and the NDP party, of which they spread word outside the House of Commons. The two left-wing parties formalized this union on paper, apparently in a backroom deal earlier in the week.

It is worthwhile to remark that the Trudeau Liberal government of the 44th Canadian Parliament was, prior to the week in question, a minority government. Minority governments in Westminster-derived parliamentary systems often run into trouble and might be overruled on a motion of confidence at any point; witness the shortest government in Canadian history: the Clark government of 1979 [0], which entailed a radical change of direction for the country. Trudeau's advisors wanted to defend against a recurrence of this no-confidence situation.

This sequence can be found in Hansard [2]. The supplementary Point of BQ MP Alain Therrien can be found the next day at [3]. NDP MP Peter Julian rose to offer his thoughts on the Brassard Point, and this was followed when Brassard himself supplemented it [4] on Thursday. It seems the titular Speaker of the House was in hospital and therefore Brassard offered that under "Subsection 43(1) of the Parliament of Canada Act vests you, Mr. Speaker, with full and adequate authority to address this matter. It states:
Whenever the House of Commons is informed of the unavoidable absence of the Speaker thereof by the Clerk at the table, the Chairman of Committees, if present, shall take the chair and perform the duties and exercise the authority of Speaker in relation to all the proceedings of the House, as Deputy Speaker."

Thus the matter was in Brassard's opinion resolvable by the Chair of Committees, Chris d'Entremont [6], on Friday 25 March.

Brassard, who is at time of writing the Opposition House Leader, made very incisive points in his original Point on Tuesday: he observed that Standing Order 81(13), Paragraph 50(2)(b) of the Parliament of Canada Act, Standing Order 33, Standing Order 106(2), Standing Order 81(4) (at least!) were in question due to the change in constitution of the House. The nearest parallel he could find was the 1921 general election [7], which constituted the 14th Canadian Parliament [8].

Let's see how this works out, internet friends! What is your opinion on the matter? If anyone can tell me why the legacy media haven't yet reported on this extremely important question, the first prize is worth a box of beer!

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Clark

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/31st_Canadian_Parliament

[2] https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/44-1/house/sitting-43/hansard

[3] https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/44-1/house/sitting-44/hansard

[4] https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/44-1/house/sitting-45/hansard

[5] https://www.ourcommons.ca/Members/en/chair-occupants?parliament=44&caucusId=all&province=all&gender=all

[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_d%27Entremont

[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1921_Canadian_federal_election

[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/14th_Canadian_Parliament

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