Conservatives launch marathon voting session over Liberal refusal to scrap carbon tax

Pierre Poilievre's Conservatives have launched an overnight marathon voting session in the House of Commons, after signalling they'd be making good on their threat to delay the government's agenda over their opposition to the carbon tax.

Pierre Poilievre's Conservatives have launched an overnight marathon voting session in the House of Commons, after signalling they'd be making good on their threat to delay the government's agenda over their opposition to the carbon tax.

On Thursday evening, the Conservatives began calling what could total to more than 100 votes on line items from the Liberal government's latest spending plans.

Following the debate and failed vote on the Official Opposition's last "supply day" motion of the season—once again calling for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to scrap the carbon tax — MPs moved to consider the latest batch of supplementary estimates for 2023-24, triggering what could be an estimated 27 consecutive hours of votes.

"This evening we'll be dealing with the supply bills. You may know by now that Conservatives have put on a number of opposed items in an effort to highlight the pain that the Liberal carbon tax is imposing on Canadians who are struggling with food prices at grocery stores," Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer said after question period, setting up the session.

He said the Conservatives would be willing to back down and allow the estimate process to proceed in "an orderly and timely manner," if the government pushed the Senate to repeal the amendment that essentially gutted a backbencher's farm fuel carbon tax carve out legislation.

"If not, in order to ensure Canadians understand the devastating impact the carbon tax will have on them, we will be voting around the clock until this government gets it through their minds, that the carbon tax is causing all this misery on Canadians," Scheer said.

The supplementary estimates are a document that outlines additional government spending, and before this spending package can be voted on, the rules state MPs have to deal with any "opposed votes." There are currently more than 100 "opposed votes" posted by the Conservatives, which as a procedural tool forces the House to take a specific position on various line items from the estimates.