On the off chance that somebody royally screwed up, I wanted to be sure I was watching the vote on the budget in the House of Commons yesterday. I also have to give the opposition parties props for making it as exciting as a budget vote possibly could be. Everyone except the Bloc Quebecois that is; they did not bother auditioning for a starring role.
Why would I think that someone might screw up? It was entirely the fault of an MP I know who mentioned that they’ve seen it happen more than once already since the election. Voting electronically isn’t a fail-safe; what if your internet or cell service jammed just long enough to miss the vote completely? What if someone was supposed to abstain but they voted? Letting the budget pass with a bare majority of votes took some strategy.
Act One
They set the stage well, with most of the characters giving us a taste of what was in store. Prime Minister Mark Carney wasn’t in a mood to pander to opposition and left them with two options: pass the budget or take us to an election. In fairness, that is always the option in a minority government.
Some said the PM should have worked harder to ensure the budget would pass. Others compared it to how Stephen Harper managed his minority governments (and I’m not even sure if it was a compliment or a criticism). What most politicos (and the opposition excluding BQ) agreed on is that Canadians did not want a Christmas election, and whomever let the government fall would be punished at the ballot boxes.
This is why I had to watch the vote. No one— except the BQ— wanted to let the government fall and force a Christmas election. Therefore, it was only going to happen if someone really messed up (vigorously rubs hands together).
NDP Interim Leader Don Davies had said the NDP would all vote the same. We knew that the BQ would vote “nay”, and that the CPC MPs who showed up would vote “nay”.
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May was a tad coy about whether she would support the Liberals. She says she decided to support it because there’s still a commitment to meeting climate targets which made many people scoff because we weren’t going to manage that before the trumspter fire started and we definitely won’t be doing it now. Personally, I think she supported the budget for an extra question every couple of weeks; which is a fair trade in my opinion. Voting no wouldn’t change the fact we won’t reach climate targets and at least an extra question is something tangible she can use.
Ms. May admitted she would support the budget after Question Period Monday, before the vote.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller was asked by reporters as he strode by if he thought the budget would pass. He said “yep” and they asked how he knew. He said “I don’t know” and kept going.
It wasn’t exactly a reassurance.
Act Two
The bells rang and the MPs filed into the Chamber.
The Whips bowed to one another and took their seats.
The Speaker called for the yeas to stand and be counted. The Liberals stood, and so did Ms. May.
As they were being counted, the website was updating with those voting online and two NDP MPs registered “nay” and that’s when the fun began.
“Davies said they would all vote the same; does that mean they’re all voting ‘nay’ or can a couple of them abstain and still be voting ‘the same’??”
People started looking at the CPC benches, wondering who was not in the Chamber.
Then one of the NDP MP’s “nay” votes online disappeared.
I’m not going to pretend that I didn’t get a slightly uncomfortable feeling in the pit of my stomach. Online voting… it’s fabulous right up until you see those dreaded words: “your internet connection is unstable”.
Two CPC MPs from Edmonton were not in the Chamber; Matt Jeneroux who resigned his seat— that CPC leader Pierre Poilievre essentially tweeted out that it was more of an intention to resign a few months into the future— and Shannon Stubbs, who was on a medical leave. They could vote online, ostensibly; now we were watching the online vote tallies again.
When it came time for the NDP MPs in the Chamber to vote, there were four “nays” with one abstention. Add to that the one “nay” online and the vote that had been a “nay” but disappeared.
The Speaker asked the lone NDP MP to voice their vote for the record but she leaned into a justification for her vote (which I was this many years old when I learned that was unacceptable) so they muted her. At this point, my palms were probably a little damp.
The House erupted with dissent at her effort.
Again, the Speaker asked her to voice her vote for the record and she started with “yes” before launching into something (they muted her again) but we could see her doing some finger waving as she continued. So, what was it? Was it a “yea” or “nay”?
It was recorded as an abstention.
The tally at that time was 170 in favour to 166.
Then, two CPC MPs, Andrew Scheer and Scott Reid, rushed to their seats saying they were unable to vote online and wanted to record their votes for the record: two “nays”.
I was also today years old when I learned that the doors to the chamber are locked when the MPs are voting, which means that both Mr. Scheer and Mr. Reid were in the caucus vestibule while the votes were initially being counted, and they didn’t return until they were certain they could register their votes without causing the government to fall.
The final vote was 170 in favour to 168 dissenting.
Slow clap.
Well done.
Plot twist!
What happened afterwards was yet another show. Maybe the press gallery got all worked up during the vote too and really needed to let off some steam, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen the media go after someone in a scrum like they did Don Davies. They hit him again, and again, and again.
Why had any NDP MPs abstained? Are they just propping up the governing party again? Why had they not taken the government down?
It was so brutal that Rick Bell — yes, that Rick Bell — who was a guest on CBC’s Power and Politics, even came to their defence.
“No one wanted a Christmas election,” Mr. Bell said. “They did what needed to be done.”
To Mr. Davies’ credit, he did retort at one point that the CPC also had two MPs abstain and maybe they should be asking Pierre Poilievre why his party didn’t try to bring the government down. It was an all-out attack.
Withering criticism was dished out at each of them for coming out to scrum in the first place; and you have to think it’s pretty bad when Rick Bell starts defending the NDP.
Once the dust had settled, with the two abstentions from the CPC (that weren’t off hiding in the corner) the entire NDP caucus could have registered “nay” votes because the Speaker would have been called on to break the tie vote. While the Speaker is supposed to conduct themselves in a non-partisan manner, they typically vote to keep the status quo rather than bring down the government.
However, it goes to show that neither the NDP nor the CPC trusted the other — and perhaps that the latter also didn’t trust all of their members who were actually out of the Chamber. Though… it would have made for a legendary “I told you I quit” mic drop.
Don’t get me wrong— I know that would have actually been awful— but it would have made for a great story :)
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Perhaps Politics has always been about performance - not productivity nor good governance?
Clearly, all these terms are subjective.