Party Lines
with Rosemary Barton, Elamin Abdelmahmoud
Showdown in Parliament
26 mins
Oct. 22, 2020
Yesterday marked exactly one year since the last federal election… and yesterday, Canadians were nearly sent to the polls once again. After the Conservatives put forward a motion in the House calling for a special committee to examine the WE Charity controversy, Liberals said they would make the vote on that motion a matter of confidence, meaning the minority government could have fallen. Okay, yes, that’s a lot to wrap your head around — but Rosie and Elamin are here to answer the big questions, like: What are opposition parties doing to pursue the WE affair? Why did the Liberals put their minority government on the line for this? And how did we get so close to the brink of a snap election?
Plus, the two also shine a light on the federal government’s role in the Nova Scotia fishery dispute. MPs stayed up late on Monday for an emergency debate focused on the newly launched Mi'kmaw lobster fishery in Saulnierville, N.S. and the increasingly violent opposition to it from non-Indigenous commercial fishers. Rosie and Elamin take a look at what surfaced in that debate, and what next steps the feds may consider.