Christian Conservative Christian "Independent"

I'm an evangelical Christian, member of the CPC, but presently & unjustly exiled to wander the political wilderness.
All opinions expressed here are solely my own.

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Oops... Budget 2006 Passed

Why do I say "Oops", you ask? Because it seems the Opposition forgot to oppose the Tories Federal budget, and it was officially passed at 3rd Reading, with the "unanimous consent" of the House.

From the CBC:
Even though two federal parties had promised to vote against the Conservative government's budget, it passed Tuesday without opposition because of an apparent mix-up.

When the May 2 budget came up for its third and final reading in the House of Commons on Tuesday morning, no one stood to speak. Because there were no apparent speakers, the budget was declared passed by unanimous consent with no recorded vote.

NDP MP Libby Davies told CBC News the mix-up happened because a Conservative MP who had been scheduled to speak first was not in the chamber.

In the ensuing confusion, Davies said the opposition legislators were waiting for the Tory MP to show up and speak before they stood up. They later learned that the budget had been dealt with, at least as far as the House of Commons was concerned.
...
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, who wasn't even in the House when his budget was passed, seemed to be enjoying the appearance of "unanimity" for the budget.

In the afternoon question period, he thanked the opposition for supporting the government during the budget's third reading. Earlier, he joked to reporters that the budget was "even more popular than I thought."
Oops!

Anyway, we all knew it was going to pass due to the BQ's support, but I had to post this because I thought it was pretty funny... it's likely the first Federal Budget ever that was passed with the unanimous support of the House!

11 Comments:

  • At Tue Jun 06, 05:29:00 p.m. EDT, Blogger Joanne (True Blue) said…

    Awesome! I wonder if it had anything to do with the terrorist threats?

     
  • At Tue Jun 06, 05:33:00 p.m. EDT, Blogger Blake Kennedy said…

    Terrorist threats?!? What, did you threaten to show up in the gallery and read some more of Debris Trail's sublime prose publicly, Joanne?

     
  • At Tue Jun 06, 05:48:00 p.m. EDT, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Chalk that up to twice in as many days that Conservatives made the Liberals look like idiots... first with John Tory getting through his motion for an inquiry into McGuinty's stalling on the Caledonia front, and now with the federal budget passing without opposition.

    This is hilarious.

     
  • At Tue Jun 06, 05:58:00 p.m. EDT, Blogger scott said…

    I that the first time this has happened?

     
  • At Tue Jun 06, 06:12:00 p.m. EDT, Blogger Matt said…

    yes.

     
  • At Tue Jun 06, 06:35:00 p.m. EDT, Blogger Joanne (True Blue) said…

    Actually, I was pondering the possiblity that the RCMP would like to see the MP's out of Ottawa as soon as possible.

     
  • At Tue Jun 06, 07:22:00 p.m. EDT, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    It could be just pre-election positioning. If the budget is popular the opposition can point out that they didn't vote against it. If the budget is unpopular the opposition can claim procedural error or some such thing and use it against the Conservatives.

     
  • At Tue Jun 06, 08:45:00 p.m. EDT, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Unbelievable, NDP and Liberal mp's should be recalled by the voters who put them in office.

     
  • At Tue Jun 06, 10:50:00 p.m. EDT, Blogger Joanne (True Blue) said…

    jgriffin, good point. Should be interesting to see how it plays out.

     
  • At Wed Jun 07, 01:17:00 a.m. EDT, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    This could also be the excuse used if the Senate stops it. "We're sending it back to the House because they never properly voted."

    Oops - summer's here and now the budget won't pass after all. Although Stephen Harper hinted a while ago that he'd hold Parliament into the summer if the budget were stalled.

     
  • At Wed Jun 07, 07:22:00 a.m. EDT, Blogger Christian Conservative said…

    Yikes... I really hope you're wrong on that point Luke. Although, tradition is that the Senate doesn't play around with money bills. (but they did when the GST was being introduced, so who knows)

     

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