Politics

The Conservatives want to hear from Thomas Mulcair

And the New Democrats want to hear from Stephen Harper

As Glen McGregor notes, the Conservatives pulled an interesting gambit out of the Standing Orders this morning and Thomas Mulcair is now due to testify at the Procedure and House Affairs committee about the NDP’s use of regional offices. It is perhaps a bit odd to have a cabinet minister directing committee business, but it is at least heartening to see such interest in the expenditure of public funds.

The New Democrats responded with their own motion, which they tabled at the  committee this afternoon.

That, pursuant to the motion adopted by the House of Commons on March 27th, 2014 relating to the parliamentary functions being performed in offices of the official opposition, the committee invite the Honourable Leader of the Opposition; and also invite the Right Honourable Prime Minister to appear before the committee to address the many partisan activities undertaken by his government, specifically by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and by the Conservative Research Group (CRG), and that furthermore, the current study on C-23 be extended by the same number of days as those scheduled for the study on the referred motion.

Would the Conservatives ever agree to such a thing? I suspect not. Would this at least force them to explain why one party leader is being called and not the other? I presume that might be the point.

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