Green Party's Elizabeth May reflects on unprecedented week in Canadian politics

Elizabeth May says in all her years on Parliament Hill she has never seen anything like the last week in Canadian politics.

Elizabeth May says in all her years on Parliament Hill she has never seen anything like the last week in Canadian politics.

In a year-end interview with The Canadian Press, May -- now in her 13th year as the B.C. MP for Saanich--Gulf Islands -- spoke about the bombshell events on Parliament Hill, the parliamentary stalemate that has paralyzed the House of Commons for months and her thoughts on the fate of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal leadership.

Ottawa was sent reeling last Monday as Chrystia Freeland resigned as finance minister, mere hours before she was scheduled to deliver the important fall economic statement in the House of Commons.

While the ongoing privilege debate isn't, in May's view, necessarily unprecedented, Freeland's resignation and the ensuing chaos in the House of Commons is something she says she has never witnessed before.

"Chrystia Freeland's resignation letter was the equivalent of pulling a pin out of a grenade, throwing it in the room, shutting the door," May said.

"It's, I think, quite plausibly the beginning of her campaign for Liberal leadership."

After House Speaker Greg Fergus paused the ongoing privilege debate to allow the fiscal update to be tabled, May said it was utter confusion in the House around what was supposed to happen next after Freeland's resignation.