(Files by Brendan Pawliw-MyPGNow)
Cariboo-Prince George MP Todd Doherty didn’t hide his disappointment after hearing parliament has been discontinued until the end of September (23rd).
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Tuesday the break will provide a chance to present an updated Speech from the Throne.
However, Doherty believes it’s a chance for Trudeau to call another election.
“I think he wants to force the opposition parties to vote against whatever the Speech from the Throne is and then that way he can blame that fall election on the opposition parties when in truth, it’s him running away from his scandals.”
“During the election, I chose not to respond to talk about Black Face or any of the ethics scandals because it really didn’t amount to a hill of beans here in our riding and every day in our riding we were picking up the newspaper or listening to the radio that we had another mill closure or more curtailments. Those are the issues that matter most to me and now what we have is a global health crisis and a crisis that is impacting all Canadians and many businesses that have had to close and now what Mr. Trudeau has done doesn’t matter and what matters most is dealing with the latest scandal that is going on.”
He added seeing the current session suspended did raise a few eyebrows.
“It’s very disappointing and it’s very shameful. I was elected to represent our constituents and the only way that we do that is by standing in the House of Commons and delivering their voices to parliament and the contempt of parliament with this Prime Minister is at its highest level.”
“We’re hoping that there would still be some changes to any of the emergency relief benefit plans and policies moving forward and now parliament has been prorogued for more time when Canadians need them the most,” Doherty included.
Doherty also touched on the appointment of Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland being named the new Finance Minister, becoming the first female to hold that post in the country’s history.
“We have worked closely together in the past on a lot of collaborative issues with softwood lumber being one of them it was the number one issue we worked together on but we still don’t have a new deal.”