House of Commons Speaker Greg Fergus (Image Credit: The Canadian Press)

By Doug Collins

One Man's Opinion

COLLINS: Conservatives’ attack a total waste of time

Jun 2, 2024 | 6:00 AM

ONE THING ABOUT POLITICS is there is never a shortage of attempts to grab the headlines. And often, these attempts are just stupid ploys that are pointless and serve very little purpose.

For example, Conservative MP Chris Warkentin put a motion on the floor of the House of Commons this week that called for the removal of Speaker Greg Fergus. It was all about a plan by Fergus to hold a big Liberal gathering in his home riding.

It was handled badly by the Liberals from the get-go. As the Speaker, Fergus is bound by certain standards, and in this case, he committed a big no-no. The copy in the invite was full of anti-Conservative rhetoric. The Liberal Party took responsibility for that, claiming things like this are auto-populated by the party.

So let’s look at the situation. Fergus and the Liberals committed a major screwup. The deputy speaker, who investigates these things, basically found the language inappropriate. And even though the wording is auto-populated, someone should have checked it — especially since it involved someone whose integrity should be above reproach.

But to put a motion forward to remove the speaker was a waste of time. The motion wasn’t going to pass, and even though the Liberals made a huge gaffe, no one really cares. It was a total waste of time.

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While Warkentin might be praised for raising the issue, there are so many crises of much higher priority facing the country. When people die because they have to wait so long even for emergency surgery, when a huge portion of Canadians don’t have a family doctor, when many Canadians can only dream of owning a home, when the drug crisis is killing more people every day, I really don’t care if the Speaker makes a stupid mistake.

For Chris Warkentin, a missed opportunity to hammer the government on important issues dealing with our country’s future while trying to blow up a minor incident into something far bigger than it was.

I’m Doug Collins and that’s One Man’s Opinion.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.