SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 287 - Feb/28/24

Feb/28/24 5:06:44 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, absolutely, the member for Carleton voted six times in person and the rest of the time voted, I guess, online. The reality is that we need to ensure that the employees of the House of Commons, who are really the bastion of this democracy, are not forced to work overnight for 25 or 30 hours straight. The nine-hour health break would actually make a big difference in ensuring the health and safety of the employees who work here, as well as members of Parliament. What happened to my colleague and good friend, the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands, last June has to be a wake-up call for all of us. As a result, I would simply ask my colleague across the way why the Conservatives have been blocking a motion that would basically do two things. It would allow more members of Parliament to speak in evening sessions, and it would stop toxic overnight voting, which the member for Carleton always seems to run away from.

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Context: House Hansard - 287 - Feb/28/24

Mr. Peter Julian (New Westminster—Burnaby, NDP)

Feb/28/24 7:24:49 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, as I was saying when I was interrupted a couple of days ago, the motion is absolutely essential to doing two things. The first is for us to work harder on behalf of our constituents, allowing more time for debate in the evenings, which is something the NDP has always called for. Also, we believe absolutely fundamentally that we need to be respectful of our employees and staff who run the bastion of democracy here in the House of Commons and who have been forced into 30-hour voting marathons by the member for Carleton. I will just remind you, Madam Speaker, that the member for Carleton, after voting six times in person, basically bolted from this place and ran away. The kind of boss that one sees—

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Context: House Hansard - 287 - Feb/28/24

Mr. Peter Julian

Feb/28/24 7:25:56 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, that is fair enough. We know what the agenda of the member for Carleton is: Axe services, build up billionaires, fix elections and stop democracy. We hear this every day. That is what the Conservatives stand for. We saw this when the Harper regime was in power; there was $30 billion for billionaires each and every year, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer, as a result of the Harper tax-free treaties for billionaires with tax havens. There was axing of services; the Conservatives did that very well. They forced seniors to work longer. They axed every single program that actually helped people. There was fixing of elections as well, with myriad violations of the Canada Elections Act. The Conservatives stopped democracy, including cutting back and strangling the Auditor General's department and refusing to fund the Auditor General for the important work that the Auditor General does. That is the Conservatives' mandate and mantra. That is what they have done: Axe the services, build up the billionaires, fix elections and stop democracy. That is why New Democrats will oppose the Conservative agenda each and every day, and that is why we support the idea that we work smarter and not harder, that we actually show the respect that we need to show to the employees who keep Parliament running, and that we have a health break every day rather than running into the health problems we have seen. I am looking forward to questions and comments from my colleagues. I just want to remind the House again, though, that the member for Carleton, after an hour, bolted from the House rather than going through the 30-hour marathon.

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Context: House Hansard - 287 - Feb/28/24

Mr. Peter Julian

Feb/28/24 7:33:14 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, first off, the Harper regime was the most corrupt in Canadian history. I do not need to mention that members of that regime went to jail. Does the member not remember Conservative members of Parliament being led away in handcuffs? Second, for that member to raise the issue of working people to a person like me, who worked as a labourer for many years, worked the midnight shift in factories, worked in an oil refinery and did real, hard work, when the member for Carleton's sum total of work experience, before he arrived at the incredible Conservative milk machine of pouring all kinds of money into Conservative candidates, was one month at a Dairy Queen. That is all he brought. He had no work experience whatsoever, yet the member tries to question the work experience of real working MPs who are here. There is a member who worked as a farmer behind me, and the member for Elmwood—Transcona worked as an electrician. These are people who did real work, who got their boots dirty. Meanwhile, the member for Carleton actually shows, on Twitter, his boots with a little bit of mud—

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Context: House Hansard - 287 - Feb/28/24

Mr. Peter Julian

Feb/28/24 7:39:19 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is hard to take that question seriously. The point I was making is that the member for Carleton is simply a workplace tourist. When he shows videos of himself with a little mud on his shoes, and he has only worked in a real private sector job for one month of his life, in a Dairy Queen, he does not bring a lot of depth or gravitas to the job of running what is a G7 or G8 country. That is the point I was making. Also, in contrast to the member, I started volunteering for the NDP at the age of 14. I did not have money poured on me. I worked by day in a brewery. At night, I was a volunteer, knocking on doors—

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