“I will be on my feet at roughly 7p.m. to stand up against this budget and I will keep speaking and keep speaking and keep blocking this inflationary train wreck until the Prime Minister rises with a plan.”
Conservative Leader of the opposition Pierre Poilievre embarked on a short-lived filibuster of the Liberals’ budget bill last night, (217 minutes) using his right as leader of the Official Opposition to speak without time limits during third reading debate. His filibuster in the House lasted until just before midnight ending with the 900+ amendments not passing, and the Liberals not heeding the Official Opposition’s two demands thus pushing the vote on the bill to today, where it passed with support from the Liberals and NDP.
A Canadian parliamentary filibuster is not actually an American style filibuster since it can’t stop the clock and prevent the House from adjourning.
Pierre “Not Prime Minister Material” Poilievre neglected to point that out in his pre filbuster media bluster blasts.
A wee abridged history lesson on a filibuster worth blustering about which became the biggest filibuster in the history of Canada.
For three years pre 1911, the Canadian House of Commons had discussed the question of naval help for Britain. leading up to an imporant event which occurred on May 30, 1913.
When the Liberals were in power, Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier had proposed that Canada should build a navy. The Conservatives opposed this under Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden, who said that this was disloyal to Britain. Instead, he had said, Canada should give Britain money to build battleships.
The Quebec Nationalists under Henri Bourassa supported the Conservatives, not because they wanted to help Britain, but because they opposed the building of a Canadian navy.
The Conservatives won the election in 1911 and Sir Wilfrid Laurier(L), as leader of the Opposition, asked them what they would do about the navy or naval aid for Britain.
Sir Robert Borden (C) introduced a measure to give Britain $35 million to build British battleships.
The Liberals tried to force another election on the issue and launched the biggest filibuster in the history of the Canadian House of Commons. They kept the House in session twenty-four hours a day for two weeks, except for one Sunday when there was an armistice (truce–cease-fire). Both parties divided their members into eight-hour shifts. Liberals who hadn’t spoken for years took their turns, quoting the Bible, reading the British North America Act, or Janes Fighting Ships (the bible of shipping), or anything even remotely relevant.
Eventually, Sir Robert Borden ended the debate by invoking the “closure” for the first time in Canada.