Liberals, NDP criticize Poilievre's absence during late-night House sitting

The Liberals and NDP are criticizing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre for being absent from the House of Commons as his party works to delay government legislation.

Poilievre said Wednesday his MPs will pitch "thousands of amendments" to legislation to keep Parliament sitting over Christmas if the Liberal government doesn't scrap parts of its carbon tax.

"You will have no rest until the tax is gone," Poilievre said in a message to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Liberal MPs.

The Tories are forcing delays by prompting 135 votes in the House, most of them on the government's estimates. The party said this will result in round-the-clock voting that likely will last until Friday evening and stall the Liberal agenda.

Poilievre held a fundraiser in Quebec on Thursday evening before spending time with members of the Montreal Jewish community at a synagogue that was recently hit by Molotov cocktails, a spokesperson told CBC News on background.

That didn't stop MPs from taking note of his absence from the House on Thursday evening. Some began chanting "Where is Pierre?" at the Conservative benches.

Conservatives responded with chants of "Where is Trudeau?" — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was also absent earlier in the evening but arrived later. Deputy Speaker Chris d'Entremont promised to have MPs removed if the chanting continued.

Speaking to reporters before the voting marathon began Thursday evening, Government House Leader Karina Gould criticized Poilievre for his absence.

"Here he is yesterday claiming to Canadians that he's going to hold this government to account," she said. "Well, let's see if he shows up to vote."

Rules adopted in the wake of the pandemic allow MPs to vote virtually through an app; Poilievre, Trudeau and other MPs did that a number of times on Thursday evening. Poilievre's spokesperson told CBC the Conservative leader will be participating in every vote.

NDP House Leader Peter Julian also spoke to reporters about Poilievre's absence.

"The fact that Mr. Poilievre doesn't even have the courage to be here with the members of Parliament that are here all night shows how artificial his latest blocking tactic is," Julian said.

The Conservatives maintain they will carry out their obstruction tactics until the Liberals lift the carbon tax from all home-heating energy sources, pass a bill to grant carbon tax relief to some farmers and exempt all First Nations from the carbon levy, as some chiefs have demanded.

Poilievre put forward a motion calling on the government to meet those demands on Thursday but it was defeated.