No Election During Pandemic! Opposition motion to ensure no election called during pandemic adopted by MPs 327-1

By: Broderick Visser
Published June 1, 2021

Last week, a motion was put forward by Bloc Québécois member Alain Therrien to “ensure that voters are not called to the polls as long as the pandemic continues.”

The motion was adopted by MP’s almost unanimously in the House of Commons 327-1 as Independent MP Derek Sloan (Hastings-Lennox & Addington) was the Sloan ranger voting against the motion.

Sloan has been reminding voters “we cannot forgive and forget” if their local MPs or even MPPs don’t speak out about restrictions and the state of our nation.

“If your local politician was not speaking out, was not putting his neck on the line — then he doesn’t deserve your vote, whoever it is,” said Sloan at a ‘No More Lockdowns’ event in Norwich on May 9.

“None of your local politicians are here today to support you and I wanna say you keep that in mind if they’re not there going gets tough — what good are they? No good. We have been completely failed by all of our politicians at all levels.”

Motion No. 118 reads as follows;

“That:

(a) the House remind the government that a general election was held in October 2019 and sadly note that more than 1.3 million Canadians, including almost 360,000 Quebecers, have been infected with COVID-19 and that nearly 25,000 people have died as a result; and

(b) in the opinion of the House, holding an election during a pandemic would be irresponsible, and that it is the responsibility of the government to make every effort to ensure that voters are not called to the polls as long as this pandemic continues.”

The Liberals tried to amend the motion to say it is the responsibility of all parties to avoid a pandemic election, but the Bloc Québécois rejected the amendment.

This means that an election can be called during COVID — but the Liberals won’t push for an election. It also means that opposition parties could call for confidence votes — but as we’ve seen with the NDPs — that is highly unlikely.

The NDPs have become well known for supporting the Liberals on confidence votes in the last year.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh weighed in on the motion saying that if the Liberals called an election, it would be because they want more power.

328 out of 337 MPs in the House of Commons voted on the motion, with one vacant seat in Parliament currently as of the date of writing this article;

• 148/154 Liberals voted on the motion.
• 117/119 Conservatives voted on the motion.
• 32/32 Bloc Québécois voted on the motion.
• 23/24 NPD’s voted on the motion.
• 3/3 Green’s voted on the motion.
• All five Independents voted on the motion — with Derek Sloan voting against.