MOOSOMIN — With parliament prorogued and looming tariff threats from south of the border, Yorkton-Melville MP Cathay Wagantall says she feels it’s time to get back to work, calling on the government to re-open Parliament.
“[We are] facing the risk of unjustified 25 per cent tariffs from our largest trading partner,” she said. “Obviously, that would have damaging consequences across the country. They said they wanted to stop the illegal flow of drugs and other general activity at our border, and the Liberal government admitted that the border was a problem, and that’s why they announced a multi-billion dollar border plan, but it’s a plan they cannot fund because they shut down parliament.”
The idea that this action can continue with an empty House is befuddling to Wagantall.
“Nobody’s home and we also need retaliatory tariffs, and that requires urgent parliamentary consideration,” she said. “It’s not just a decision to be made by the Prime Minister trying to negotiate with all of the premiers. Again, they shut down Parliament in the middle of this crisis, so we’re looking very weak and very out of control. They’ve put themselves and their leadership politics ahead of the country, really, by waiting, knowing and seeing that this was going to be the situation we would find ourselves in right now.”
The two frontrunners for the top job in the Liberal party—and temporary Prime Minister until an election is called—appear to be Mark Carney and Chrystia Freeland. Both have initially been strong proponents of the Carbon Tax, and have also since changed their views on the subject. The Conservatives have voiced their opposition to the carbon pricing since its implementation in 2019.
Wagantall says she doesn’t trust Liberal promises to cancel the carbon tax.
“I’m quite confident that people would see through any kind of action that they take at this point in time in regards to carbon tax,” Wagantall said.
As for the call to prorogue Parliament and bring almost everything to a grinding halt, Wagatall has her suspicions as to the true nature of the move.
“We know why the prorogation really took place, it really doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that government was hung up,” she said. “It was because they wouldn’t share anything on the Green Slush Fund and all the paperwork. They were limiting themselves there, but that was his (Trudeau’s) explanation to the media. The more he talked, the more it became clear that what they needed was this leadership race, and so here we are.”
Wagantall doesn’t see either of the frontrunners as having an edge, citing their association with the Trudeau government.
“Between Carney and Freeland, I don’t see one choice as any better than the other,” Wagantall said. “They’re both completely tied to all the damaging decisions that Justin made and the abuse of taxpayers—the slush funds contracts, everything that’s caused him to tank in the polls they’ve been part of.”
Paused, but not sitting still
Despite the hiatus until the end of March, Wagantall says MPs are not sitting on their laurels.
“In some ways, it’s been busier to me, because we have so many opportunities to hear from various industries and businesses,” she said. “In addition, we’re continuing to expose every day the truth of how the NDP and Liberal taxes are harming business and investment; crime, from open borders, it’s ravaging our communities more and more; incomes are not keeping pace with the cost of living, while the middle class is disappearing; and then there’s these issues that are important to Canadians, along with the economy: freedom of speech, of faith and equal opportunity are being erased by this government.”
The solution according to Wagantall is a return to work in Ottawa.
“We are calling on Trudeau to reopen Parliament now because we have to pass those new border controls, agree on trade retaliation, and prepare a plan to rescue Canada’s weak economy,” she said, noting that the Prime Minister does have the ability to ask the Governor General to cut the prorogation short. “We’re very focused on the importance of not going until the end of March. We should be back in the House now.”
Whenever politicians return, chances are likely that an election will result as both the Conservatives and NDP have been vocal about a vote of non-confidence at the first opportunity.
“We want to push to defeat this government for the vote of non-confidence as soon as possible, keeping in mind that this Liberal government and our weak Prime Minister, they put our nation in this precarious place with the United States,” Wagantall said. “We are sitting in a vacuum, and it’s his doing. It is so dangerous for our country.
“We do have amazing plans in place, and we have to move very quickly when we do form government in the midst of a lot of moving parts,” Wagantall concluded.
