Liberals may use time allocation to push priorities through Parliament
OTTAWA — The Liberal government is heading into the second half of its mandate with a number of big legislative priorities they are eager to move through Parliament.
And they are ready to curtail debate if they think the opposition parties are dragging their feet — especially since the will of the increasingly independent Senate is becoming harder to predict.
“We know that there’s going to be vigorous debate and there is going to be partisanship and politics on many ideas,” said Cameron Ahmad, a spokesman for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. “It’s how our system works, but at the same time I don’t think it’s necessary for every single issue to be framed around partisanship.”
This spring, the Liberal government backed down on part of its plan to alter the ins and outs of parliamentary procedure, abandoning some of the more controversial reforms that the Conservatives and New Democrats had been battling for weeks.