OTTAWA -- The federal Conservatives are gearing up for a procedural showdown in the House of Commons Thursday that could see MPs voting late into the night, depending on whether the government will agree to have a senior bureaucrat testify before a committee about the Atwal incident during the official trip to India.
The potential for hours of voting could hinge on whether the Liberals vote in favour of a motion that the Conservatives are proposing: to have the House call Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to instruct his national security advisor, Daniel Jean, to testify publicly at the Public Safety and National Security Committee before the end of the month.
Conservative House Leader Candice Bergen signaled her party鈥檚 intentions on CTV鈥檚 Power Play Wednesday, saying that she hopes the government will support their Opposition day motion, and if not they are 鈥済oing to use every tool available.鈥
Bergen cited the votes scheduled for tomorrow and said the amount could increase, 鈥渄epending on how the initial vote goes.鈥
Here鈥檚 how this could happen: Thursday is the last opposition day of the current 鈥渟upply鈥 schedule, meaning the Opposition day motion is set to be voted on in the evening, followed by votes on the supplementary estimates -- a document that outlines additional government spending.
However, Bergen has already placed 66 votes for Thursday. By tomorrow that number could grow to around 250 votes, her office said, noting though that Conservatives are not committed to anything depending on how the day goes.
These opposing votes would have to be dealt with before MPs can get to voting on the estimates themselves, a process that could keep MPs standing and sitting in the chamber for hours if the Conservatives force MPs to vote on each one.
鈥淲e鈥檝e probably got about 40 hours鈥 worth of votes,鈥 Bergen said on Power Play.
The Tories have already tried once to have Jean appear, in hopes of getting more answers about why he suggested in a background briefing to reporters that factions in the Indian government may have tried to sabotage Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's trip to India in February, while others have disputed that theory. This briefing was given to reporters after photos surfaced of attempted murderer Jaspal Atwal with Sophie Gregoire Trudeau at an event.
The Liberals voted down the previous attempt to hear from the senior official at the committee, and Bergen said the Conservatives think they have yet to clear things up.
On Power Play, NDP MP Niki Ashton said her party will support the Tory鈥檚 Opposition day motion, though Liberal MP Marco Mendicino chalked the threat up to 鈥渢actics鈥 and 鈥減osturing from the Opposition.鈥
He said the hours could be better spent debating more pressing matters, though Bergen said the Liberals could avoid the ordeal by voting once, in support of their motion.
鈥淲e are the Opposition, we have a job to do and that is to hold this prime minister to account,鈥 she said.