'I'm Right Here, Bro': Canadian Parliament Turned Into a

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Things got heated in Canada’s House of Commons yesterday when the NDP and the Conservatives started shouting at one another after some pretty harsh commentary by conservative leader Pierre Poilievre. We’ll get to that in a moment but first here’s all of the ongoing political drama that led up to this moment.

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau leads a coalition government, meaning his Liberal Party had to partner with the even further left-wing New Democratic Party (NDP) to install him as PM. But Trudeau’s approval ratings have been sliding for months and two weeks ago, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh announced he was tearing up the agreement to support Trudeau’s government. That meant that, in theory, Trudeau was exposed to a vote of no-confidence which could trigger a new election, one which polls suggest the conservatives would win.

But Pierre Poilievre, leader of the conservatives, called Singh’s move a stunt, because while Singh had ruled out automatically supporting Trudeau in the case of a no-confidence vote, he had not promised to vote against him either. Instead, Singh merely said future votes would be on a case by case basis.

Also there was a special election for a couple of House seats, one of which the NDP seemed to be struggling to win against an insurgent conservative party. The NDP did win that seat, but another seat in Montreal that had been held by the liberals for decades went to the Bloc Quebecois, a French-speaking (but also left-wing) party. This was seen as another clear sign that Trudeau’s Liberals were slipping.

And that brings us to yesterday. Both the Bloc Quebecois and the NDP announced they would vote to preserve Trudeau’s government if Pierre Poilievre’s conservatives called for a vote of no-confidence.

Days after pulling out of a deal to prop up Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said Thursday his MPs will vote to support the Liberal government in next week’s non-confidence motion vote…

“New Democrats came to Ottawa to get stuff done, to work for people, to fight for people, not to play Pierre Poilievre’s games,” Singh said.

“We’re not going to let Pierre Poilievre tell us what to do.”

Yesterday, during the House of Commons question time, Poilievre used his time to repeatedly let Jagmeet Singh have it. “The NDP leader was terrified he was going to lose a by-election in Winnipeg, a NDP stronghold,” Poilievre said. He continued, “So he put out a Hollywood production where he claimed he had torn up the the carbon-tax coalition onto which he had signed up, that he was going to stop fighting for his pension and start fighting for the people. But once the votes were counted he betrayed them again.

“He is a fake, a phony and a fraud. How can anyone ever believe what this sellout NDP leader says in the future?”

Shots fired, as they say.

And that’s when all hell broke loose in the House, so much so that the House Speaker cut off the microphones in the room so the sound of members shouting back and forth wouldn’t be recorded. But the people who in the room said that Jagmeet Singh came out of his seat and was shouting directly at Poilievre.

Singh left his seat and walked into the aisle to shout at Poilievre. Two MPs who were in the House told CBC News that Singh said, “I’m right here, bro,” while another said they heard the NDP leader say, “I’m right here.”

Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureux told CBC News that he couldn’t make out what Singh said to Poilievre. He said the NDP leader “looked upset and somewhat confrontational, which seemed to amuse the Conservative leader.”

As Speaker Greg Fergus tried to restore order, Poilievre could be seen on camera pointing in Singh’s direction and repeatedly saying, “Do it.”

Here’s the video which, sadly, is missing the audio but in the bottom right corner at 18 minutes you can see Poilievre shouting “Do it” back at Singh who is offscreen. The House Speaker, after a long interruption, eventually quieted everyone and gave them a lecture about maintaining the dignity of the chamber. But when Jagmeet Singh spoke a few minutes later (24:40 in the clip below), his voice was hoarse from shouting. Poilievre has vowed to still call for a no-confidence vote next week but as of now it looks like Trudeau will survive.