Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Liberals walk out on vote

CTV's Graham Richardson has just reported that the Liberals walked out of the commons before the vote on the Senate.


CBC says the bottom line is that there won't be an election over this vote.

I would say that the bottom line is actually that they were tired of sitting on their bottoms!

* * * *

Update: Liberals walk out of of Confidence Vote on crime bill - CBC

4:25 Update: CTV - Tories table crime bill motion, Liberals walk out.

4:35 Motion passes as Grits abstain - Globe

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

if you put any stock in the numbers that duffy talke about re: strategic's poll, you got to think that Dion is a little half-baked. Both the majority of women and men polled think that justice is way too lenient in this country and needs to be stregthened...

Joanne (True Blue) said...

They're framing it as some nonsense about the bills already having been before the Senate before Parliament was prorogued, yadda-yadda-yadda.

What a joke.

But it should be interesting to see what the Senate does now.

KURSK said...

Did it pass without Liberal help?

Joanne (True Blue) said...

Kursk, not sure about the timing of the vote, but Graham Richardson thought it should pass because the Bloc & NDP were planning to vote with the Government on it. I'm going to add an update from CTV on the main post.

maryT said...

IF the liberals try to say this was before the senate before it was prorogued, how can the senate argue that they have only had the bill a few weeks. They can't have it both ways.

maryT said...

Vote passed, with 27 voting NO.

Joanne (True Blue) said...

Mary, logic was never one of their strong suits.

Anonymous said...

you and Jack are reporting on the same thing but on his blog it's the crime bill that the Liberals are supposedly to have walked on.

Which is it really???

Doesn't matter in the least but if I were a Liberal supporter I'd be wanting my money back.

Joanne (True Blue) said...

Which is it really???

Well, it's the motion urging the Senate to expedite passage of the crime bill, which has been passed by the elected members and is now waiting on the fuddy-duddies.

Anonymous said...

Missed it. Did Dion's caucus follow him out like...um...lemmings? Where's a good cliff when you need one.

Joanne (True Blue) said...

Anon, check out the first MDL clip off the CTV politics site.

I think Ralph Goodale led the charge.

OMMAG said...

Which begs the question...
What is more important?
1- The saftey and security of Canadian citizens?
2- The political prospects of the LIberal party?

maryT said...

When was this action planned, in caucus, and who led the charge.
I can't imagine it come from Dion.
Trained seals in action.

Anonymous said...

Charge of the Lightweight Brigade

How does it go ? Into the Valley of Death ....

Joanne (True Blue) said...

Jad - Good job with the link! You're a fast learner. ;)

Gayle said...

"They're framing it as some nonsense about the bills already having been before the Senate before Parliament was prorogued, yadda-yadda-yadda."

Actually, they are correctlyu asserting this bill is a farce, possibly unconstitutional and a complete waste of time and resources since the House is not constitutionally enpowered to make the Senate do anything.

Also, your attempts to trivialize them notwithstanding, the facts (which you allude to in your little mocking comment) do not make the conservatives look good.

Fact: 4 out of the 5 bills, including the age of consent bill, was passed by the HofC in early June (after being delayed by the conservatives for several months). Just a few days after they were passed by the House, Parliament broke for the summer. Parliament never returned because Harper prorogued. Therefore, the Senate never had an opportunity to review the bills.

After killing his own bills by proroguing, Harper chose to reintroduce the omnibus bill in the House, rather than in the Senate. The bill did not get ot the Senate until early December, and just a few days later the House broke for the Christmas session, and just a few days after they returned Harper started exaggerating the whole thing and claiming the Senate had the bill for 6 weeks (a claim that not even the most partisan of journalists was accepting).

So, by the time this motion was introduced, the Senate had the bills for days, not months, and that is including BOTH times they had the bills.

Harper was never interested in passing these bills as soon as possible. The entire thing is a set up in order to sell the argument the Senate is blocking his bills. He manufactured this entire thing.

If he really believed they were necessary for public safety then he was willing to put that safety at risk for political gain.

maryT said...

The republicans have walked out of Congress rather than vote on bill

Joanne (True Blue) said...

Mary - Wow. It must be contagious.