Stalemate: Why the House of Commons has ground to a halt

The House of Commons is in gridlock. Government bills and private members’ legislation have stalled. The Senate is running out of government matters to study. 

Parliament is paralyzed by a Conservative filibuster that started in late September. 

The Bloc Québécois, the NDP and the Green Party accuse the Tories of hijacking the Commons for their own parliamentary games.

The Conservatives say they are filibustering their own motion — tabling one sub-amendment after another —  to pressure the Liberals to turn over documents to the RCMP.

The documents were requested by parliamentarians months ago — but the Liberals have ignored the demand, refusing to hand all the records over in unredacted form. 

The Conservatives accuse the government of trying to hide evidence of Liberal corruption involving millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money.

Who’s telling the truth?

This week on “It’s Political,” we turn our attention to the Conservative filibuster and the allegations at the heart of the standoff in Parliament.  

First, we’ll dig into the substance of the request for documents with Toronto Star Ottawa bureau reporter Mark Ramzy. 

Then our panel of experts – former PMO senior director Marci Surkes, former senior Conservative communication adviser Yaroslav Baran and former NDP MP Matthew Dubé –  will join Althia to discuss the political strategies at play, and what it will take to finally end the standoff. 

• 6:08 — Mark Ramzy outlines the substance behind the filibuster
• 18:18 — Political panel discusses the parties’ political strategies around the filibuster.

In this episode: Toronto Star reporter Mark Ramzy, Compass Rose Group chief strategy officer and former senior advisor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Marci Surkes; Pendulum Group Co-founder and former senior Conservative advisor Yaroslav Baran; and Proof Strategies vice-president and former NDP MP Matthew Dubé. Hosted by Althia Raj.

Some of the clips this week were sourced from the House of Commons, CPAC, the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery, and the National Post.

This episode of “It’s Political” was produced by Althia Raj and Kevin Sexton.  Matt Hearn is our sound engineer. Our theme music is by Isaac Joel.