SoVote

Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP)

May/2/22 1:59:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I have to ask the hon. House leader of the official opposition to reflect on this: that the dysfunctionality of this place cannot be blamed on one recognized party. When the House does not work well, it is because we have brought the partisanship of election campaigning into the daily work of the House, which is not how it should be. It is not how it always was in the past. I think it would go away if we changed to proportional representation as our voting system to increase co-operation in this place. Since the Conservatives had more votes in the last two elections, are they ready to consider perhaps changing our voting system?

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Context: House Hansard - 62 - May/2/22

Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP)

May/2/22 3:10:56 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, my question is this: How is the government ensuring that with new publicly-funded plutonium technologies and so-called SMR reactors, we are not increasing the risk of proliferation of nuclear weapons undermining global treaties? The experimental Moltex salt reactor in New Brunswick is being built by a company that has never done it before, of course, because no one has. However, the British company, Moltex, has admitted through its CEO that there is a risk. He said the company had to ensure that it has “got the risk of weapons proliferation managed and sufficiently low”. What on earth is “sufficiently low”, in an era in which Putin is sabre-rattling nuclear weapons?

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Context: House Hansard - 62 - May/2/22

Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP)

May/2/22 5:04:35 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, to the hon. House leader of the official opposition, I am torn about the debate. This happens to be, by the way, for everybody else who was elected May 2, 2011, our 11th anniversary. We have had a lot of late nights in June. This is the first time we have faced the prospect of staying until midnight in May and in June. We do good work that way, but it is not the best. Does my hon. colleague from the Conservative Party agree with me that it would be far preferable if we adopted the rules we have that prohibit members from reading speeches? Then we would have fewer people prepared to keep debating forever and ever on a point—

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Context: House Hansard - 62 - May/2/22

Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP)

May/2/22 7:51:48 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, to my hon. colleague from Calgary Shepard, this comes from having the memory of this. We have had a lot of people back and forth in the House saying, “Well, this did not happen when the Conservatives were in power.” I just want to make it clear that there is a problem, and I think it is reflected in the culture of Parliament and the change that has happened over decades. I worked as a staffer to the minister of the environment in the 1980s. We did not have the sense then that the opposition existed to obstruct. That has been a growing sense, and certainly during my first time in Parliament, which started 11 years ago today, May 2, the Harper Conservatives, in majority, moved us to sitting every day of the week until midnight to catch up with the agenda. No one said they were to blame for not managing themselves properly. We need to work together far better, which requires setting partisanship aside after an election.

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