As a conservative, it was interesting for me to have a former NDP leader change my mind on an issue.

I was blaming Andrew Scheer for holding up the workings of government.

Distroscale

The business of government needs the approval of Parliament, and to achieve that approval Parliament must meet, discuss and vote.

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The Prime Minister keeps announcing terrifically expensive new relief plans and promising to bring Parliament back together to approve them.

I felt the holdup was coming from the Conservatives and their leader Andrew Scheer.

A recent Sun editorial explains, “On Saturday, the Liberals proposed that Parliament would cram five days worth of question periods into two. Two days worth would take place virtually, which would allow all MPs from across the country to participate. Then three days worth of time would occur on Wednesdays, in person, with only a few dozen MPs in attendance.

Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal House leader, posted to social media on Sunday, “In total, there will be the same amount of time for MPs to ask questions of ministers, including the Prime Minister, as there is when the House sits five days a week in a normal Parliament.”

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While the NDP and Bloc Quebecois accepted these terms, the Conservatives did not.

Thomas Mulcair, former NDP leader and a fellow Sun columnist, pointed out that it isn’t about the method of meeting, it is about the number of question period opportunities.

On my NEWSTALK1010 radio show Monday, Mulcair said, “I think that Mr. Scheer is right and I watched Mr. Trudeau’s press conference yesterday. He got so many shots in on the Conservatives it was almost impossible for Andrew Scheer’s people around him to even think about throwing in the towel after that performance.”

Mulcair added, “I am quite convinced that the brain trust around Mr. Trudeau was angling for just that result so that they could paint the Conservatives as unreasonable and partisan in a time of crisis.”

Mulcair says that Monday was an important date for Trudeau. Parliament was coming back and, “we’ve known that for five weeks.”

Trudeau said that it is too complicated to set up video conferences. Mulcair pointed out that pretty much everyone else is doing it.

“The need to have that institution there is the most important and that overrides the rest of it,” Mulcair said.

Trudeau, he pointed out, prefers the stand-alone press conference where he can talk so long you forget what the question was.

There are vital questions the government needs to answer, such as what our intelligence community knew about what was going on in China. Is it true that our health department was writing memos at the end of January saying that there was no evidence of person to person transmission?

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And about what Mulcair calls “the Achilles heel for Trudeau,” his failure to act in a timely manner at the airports and the borders. Trudeau, Mulcair points out, “Didn’t want to have more than one question period a week and Mr. Scheer is standing on principle.”

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The fewer opportunities the opposition has to ask questions, the better for Trudeau. Mulcair says that if there is only one session of question period, “there is no tomorrow and they can dance around the questions.”

He pointed out that recently the government met with “a couple of dozen people.”