Trudeau, Poilievre trade jabs over Ukraine support as House passes revamped trade deal
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A bill to implement the modernized Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement passed the House of Commons on Tuesday despite the Conservatives voting against it, prompting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to accuse Pierre Poilievre of 'abandoning' Ukraine.
A bill to implement the modernized Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement passed the House of Commons on Tuesday despite the Conservatives voting against it, prompting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to accuse Pierre Poilievre of "abandoning" Ukraine.
Trudeau and Poilievre exchanged accusations that the other is not doing enough to support Ukraine, as the legislation to implement the two-country trade pact revamp came up for its final Commons vote.
Bill C-57, as it's titled, passed by a vote of 214 to 116, with support from Liberal, Bloc Quebecois, New Democrat and Green MPs. The bill is now off to the Senate for a second round of scrutiny.
Noting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had asked Canadian parliamentarians to pass this deal, Trudeau said during Tuesday's question period that Poilievre was "choosing to not stand with Ukraine, not stand with Ukrainians, and not stand with Ukrainian Canadians."
After the vote, Trudeau called the Conservatives' opposition "inconceivable."
Earlier in the day, when asked in Montreal about his Ukraine positioning before making his way back to the Commons for the vote, Poilievre attacked Trudeau over the recently-revived acrimony over the embarrassing invitation extended to a Nazi veteran during Zelenskyy's to Canada last year.
"He embarrassed the Ukrainian president," Poilievre said. "Justin Trudeau is a big talker and a little doer when it comes to Ukraine."
