Story by Bryan Passifiume •
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh had to endure peals of laughter after he suggested he could one day be prime minister.© Provided by National Post
The House of Commons ended the sitting year on a somewhat silly note, at the expense of an opposition party leader.
Responding to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the final question period of the year on Wednesday, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh may have had a bit of a bruised ego after his statement earned peals of laughter from MPs, prompting an admonishment from House Speaker Anthony Rota.
“When I’m prime minister, I will keep my promises,” Singh exclaimed shortly after Trudeau concluded speaking, triggering a disruption of laughter, catcalls and guffaws that lasted nearly a full minute.
“I know everybody is excited and Christmas is coming … my advent calendar says two days but I think something went wrong there,” a wisecracking Rota said as he attempted to steer the proceedings back on track.
“Calm down everyone, take a deep breath.”
While Singh looked visibly affronted by the response, he was given a chance to repeat himself — which was met with a supportive standing ovation by his caucus-mates. He got derailed a second time, but on his third attempt — after another call for order from Rota — Singh was able to finish his question.
Canada’s health-care crisis dominated much of question period on Wednesday, particularly with pediatric emergency rooms overrun with children afflicted by respiratory illnesses.
Singh was challenging the prime minister’s assertions that the deadlock between the federal government and the provinces was the fault of the premiers, who want more money from Ottawa to ease the backlogs.
“I want to remind the prime minister that he promised in the last election to hire 7,500 more nurses and doctors, a promise that if he had kept would have absolutely helped in dealing with this crisis,” Singh said immediately prior to the outburst.
During a year-end interview with The Canadian Press, Trudeau said he won’t throw money at the problem without looking at reforms.
On Monday, Singh threatened to pull out of the “supply and confidence” agreement propping up the minority Liberal government if more isn’t done federally to alleviate the crisis.
In exchange for supporting the government in key votes and keeping the government from collapsing prior to the 2025 election, the Liberals promised to move ahead with a number of NDP initiatives, including dental care, prescription medicine and health care.
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