Opposition MPs say they will spend a major portion of the parliamentary prorogation period in Ottawa, with or without the governing Conservatives.
Ralph Goodale, the Liberal House Leader, said in a telephone interview from Regina on Wednesday that Liberal politicians will be found in their Ottawa offices through much of February.
“We will be at work as Members of Parliament should be and would be normally had it not been for prorogation,” Mr. Goodale said.
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff held a telephone call with his MPs this week, telling them they must be in the national capital on Jan. 25, the day that the House of Commons was due to return following the Christmas break.
“Ottawa is where the centre of accountability should be,” Mr. Goodale said. “We will obviously be making very strong efforts to consult with, link with, and communicate with Liberals and Canadians right across the country ... But Ottawa needs to be the epicentre of the activity.”
Exactly what opposition MPs will do here when Parliament is not in session has yet to be determined. Mr. Goodale said he expects there will be round-table meetings, hearings and other public events.
Commons committees cannot be formally structured, he said. “But there are other techniques … other ways in which we can pursue the substance of policy issues.”
An official with the Bloc Quebecois said Wednesday that the party’s Defence critic would be calling the other opposition critics to determine if they are willing to continue with unofficial meetings of the Afghanistan committee that was investigating the controversial detainees issue.
Conservatives had boycotted the most recent of those meetings and some critics suggest Prime Minister Stephen Harper invoked prorogation to avoid further discussion of the matter.
Mr. Goodale would not say if additional unofficial Afghanistan committees are in the offing. Opposition MPs would not be able to compel witnesses to testify. But, he said “with respect to the cover up around detainees, what the government knew and when they knew it, that is a very real issue.”
The economy is also a major preoccupation, Mr. Goodale said. “And thirdly, we have the basic question of what do you do about this massive abuse of democracy?”
For their part, the Conservatives are chuckling about the opposition threats to return to Ottawa in the face of prorogation.
“We will be back after prorogation on March 3,” a spokeswoman for government House Leader Jay Hill said. And “if they held fake committees or things like that? Absolutely not, we will not be attending those.”
Libby Davies, the House Leader for the New Democrats, said the members of her caucus art outraged by the prorogation, “how arrogant it is, and how [Mr. Harper is] trying to get off the hook in terms of what’s happening with the detainee issue and the war in Afghanistan.”
But Ms. Davies would not commit her members to participating in unofficial committee meetings. All tactics of that sort will be decided at a caucus meeting in the Ottawa area later this month.
Meanwhile, the Bloc Québécois is promising to maintain a presence in Ottawa even during the prorogation and says weekly caucus meeting will be held there throughout February. But Bloc MPs will also spend much of the prorogation period in their ridings and travelling throughout Quebec.
(Photo: Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)
