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Instead, it will simply take up all of the time allotted for responses to the Liberal government’s budget, preventing any other MP from speaking on the budget. By the standing orders of the Commons, there must be four days of debate after the budget is tabled, and the first opposition speaker has no time limit on their speech. Thus, Poilievre is speaking for four days.

It is a much less punishing tactic than the one they deployed two weeks ago, when the Conservatives forced the chamber through a gruelling all-night voting session on spending estimates. But they won’t have the chance to do that again until June, most likely, so they are using the tools they have available as the opposition to keep the SNC-Lavalin affair in the spotlight, and demand that more witnesses be called to testify at the justice committee.

Photo by Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

Across the chamber, the Liberal benches were nearly deserted, just six MPs obliging Poilievre with an audience. Among them, however, was the central figure in the SNC-Lavalin affair, Wilson-Raybould herself. Though present, her attention seemed to come and go; she seemed to pay little attention to Poilievre’s Hong Kong soliloquy, for example, typing messages on her phone instead.

Despite the controversy in which she has embroiled the government, Wilson-Raybould’s seat in the House of Commons remains in the front row on the Liberal side. That may soon change, as Liberal MPs have started publicly musing about ejecting Wilson-Raybould from caucus.