Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre holds a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023.
For a few hours, it had all the makings of a classic mid-June cross-aisle cliffhanger — a high-stakes standoff over the legislative package containing many of the big-ticket measures laid out in the latest budget. Accompanied by a full contingent of his front bench critics, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre hit the House of Commons Foyer on Monday morning, and vowed to “use all procedural tools at disposal to block the budget from passing,” including the 904 amendments submitted by Conservative members and “lengthy speeches,” unless the Liberals were prepared to meet their two demands: namely, a “plan to balance the budget to reduce interest rates and inflation” and “no new carbon tax.
In response, Liberal House Leader Mark Holland accused the Conservatives of “hijacking Parliament” and pledged to “sit here midnight to work through their juvenile antics.”