How a little-known procedure helped the Liberals dodge their first confidence vote

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal government used an obscure parliamentary maneuver to sidestep its first major test of confidence on Wednesday, adopting its reply to the throne speech by division. The measure sailed through the House of Commons without a vote after Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureux, the parliamentary secretary to government House leader Steven MacKinnon, moved without objection for the government reply to be sent to the King via Governor General Mary Simon. Conservative Leader in the House of Commons Andrew Scheer was one of the MPs on hand to watch the motion carry. Ian Brodie, a political scientist and former chief of staff to ex-prime minister Stephen Harper, said that the procedural set piece likely reflected a tacit agreement between the new government and opposition parties. “I’m sure the opposition parties thought this through and have consented to let the Carney government continue on,” said Brodie. According to the House rules of procedure , motions like the throne speech reply may be adopted without a vote under two circumstances: by unanimous consent and “on division.” The latter happens when support for the motion isn’t unanimous but no member of a recognized party moves for a recorded vote on its passage to be taken. Interim NDP leader Don Davies said in the preceding hours that he’d instruct his seven-member caucus to vote against the motion but wasn’t in a position to make good on the threat, with the NDP not having enough seats to count as a “recognized party” for the the purposes of parliamentary proceedings. The minority Liberal government suffered a minor scare on Monday evening when it didn’t have the votes blocking a hostile amendment to the throne speech reply calling on it to present an economic update before Parliament breaks for the summer. The procedural vote was not a matter of confidence and the government has said it doesn’t consider it binding. Liberal MPs downplayed the narrowly lost vote , saying that they weren’t surprised by the result. Brodie says that a new election would not necessarily have been triggered if the Liberal throne speech reply was voted down. “The Governor General could reasonably ask (Conservative Leader Pierre) Poilievre to form a government. It’s possible he could command the confidence of the House,” said Brodie. He pointed out that the Liberal government has yet to clearly establish that it enjoys the confidence of the House since Parliament was prorogued by Carney’s predecessor Justin Trudeau several months ago. — With additional reporting from the Canadian Press National Post rmohamed@postmedia.com

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