Inside Politics

Opp Day Watch: A motion so nice, Liberals tabled it twice!

by Kady O'Malley Posted: October 12, 2012 11:01 AM Last Updated: October 12, 2012 5:28 PM
Today's Notice Paper may leave dutiful daily readers wondering if they're seeing double, thanks to what would appear to be an understandable excess of enthusiasm on the Third Party benches in anticipation of an imminent opposition day, which resulted in two MPs -- Marc Garneau and Stephane Dion -- putting forward exactly the same -- and, to be fair, reasonably clever -- motion on governing via omnibus bills:

That the House agree with the comments of the Right Honourable Member for Calgary Southwest on March 25, 1994, when he criticized omnibus legislation, suggesting that the subject matter of such bills is so diverse that a single vote on the content would put members in conflict with their own principles and dividing the bill into several components would allow members to represent views of their constituents on each of the different components in the bill; and that the House instruct the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs to study what reasonable limits should be placed on the consideration of omnibus legislation and that the Committee report back its findings, including specific recommendations for legislative measures or changes to the Standing Orders, no later than December 10, 2012.

Luckily for the Liberals, they have until Wednesday tomorrow afternoon to figure out which -- if either -- of the two MPs will get to headline Thursday's Tuesday's debate. 

NOTE: I got my opposition days mixed up -- the Liberals are up on Tuesday, with the NDP set to seize control of the Chamber on Thursday. Sorry about that! 

Alternately, in the interim, the party could decide to go in an entirely different direction: notice has also been duly given for motions on the "serious and ongoing mental health crisis in Canada" and the state of Canada's food safety regime, courtesy of Hedy Fry and Frank Valeriote, respectively. 

Oh, and for those who followed last week's kerfuffle at Procedure and House Affairs: No, your eyes aren't deceiving you -- the Dion/Garneau motion does indeed appear to be an attempt to circumvent committee secrecy -- in an entirely procedurally legal fashion, mind you -- by putting the proposal to set "reasonable limits" on the use of omnibus bills before the full House, where the government can't simply use its majority to force the debate behind closed doors.

(Well, not without moving to have the Chamber itself sit in camera for the duration of the opposition day,  which could potentially be seen as a wee bit of an overreaction.) 

In any case, stay tuned! (And in future, do try to keep better track of which MPs are supposed to table what opposition day motions, Liberals.)

Tags: blackberry jungle, omnibudget II - the prelude, opposition day antics