A local MP says a 30-hour vote in the House of Commons turned out to be a lot less onerous than he expected and even enjoyable at times.
“In a crazy way, it was kind of fun,” said South Okanagan-West Kootenay New Democrat Richard Cannings of the marathon that began Thursday afternoon Ottawa time at the behest of the Conservatives and stretched until late Friday evening.
Cannings said normally the twice-yearly debate on budgetary items takes an hour or two, but “once in a while the opposition can get cranky and decide they’re going to contest every line item.”
That was the case last week. After putting in a full day, voting began around 5:45 p.m. and continued until 11 p.m. the next day.
However, Cannings feels the Conservatives misjudged the outcome, “because it certainly left the government feeling very on top of things. The Liberals I talked to were very happy at the end. If the Conservatives were trying to make them angry and sad, they did not do that.”
Cannings said because the Conservatives were the only party voting against each motion, small groups of MPs from other parties were allowed to leave the chamber at times. He and a few colleagues were let out to have a nap between midnight and 3 a.m.
Cannings planned to return to his riding for the weekend and kept pushing his flight back as voting continued. Finally at 7:30 p.m. he and a few others left, although they were allowed to keep voting from their phones, and did so from the plane.
While it was the Conservatives’ call to draw out the voting, Cannings said ironically their MPs were not there in strong numbers “because they didn’t have to be. They know they weren’t going to bring down the government and it was just all for show.”
Nevertheless, he said the Conservatives voted to defund the RCMP and military, stop Canada’s support of Ukraine, and “a lot of things that are dear to their heart.”
While the votes may have been symbolic, the Conservatives’ opposition to an armed forces training mission for Ukrainian soldiers earned the party a rebuke from the Ukrainian Canadian Congress.
“So they are playing political games and not getting the gains hoped for and making things worse in many ways,” Cannings said.
Under house rules, MPs had to stay in their seats to vote and could not wander around unless they left the chamber and continued to vote by their phone app.
In between, members found a variety of strategies to kill times. Some signed Christmas cards to constituents. Some knitted. Cannings worked on speeches he has to give this week and, befitting his background as a biologist, entered data into an app called iNaturalist.
There was also constant back-and-forth between MPs of all parties.
“They’re kind of fun off-the-record debates and rarely nasty, all kind of in jest,” Cannings said. “After 30 hours of that, there are some amusing moments. You get to know people on some strange level. I went into it with a bit of dread, but by the end I thought that was a bit of fun.
“When you put 200 or 300 people in a room and force them to sit together for 30 hours, things get a bit amusing at times.
“The Conservatives did this to make a point and make the Liberals feel some pain. But they really failed because I think everybody who was there kind of enjoyed it in a way.”
Cannings and other weary MPs are back in the house today.