Kurl said there will undoubtedly be a political cost for Trudeau as “it’s hard to unsee this type of thing”, but the extent of the damage is unclear as many of his supporters skew young and may reject or not even read punditry heavily critical of the prime minister.
Advertisement
NDP MP Tracey Ramsey told the Commons in the immediate aftermath of the incident that Trudeau uttered a profanity as he approached her caucus colleagues standing in front of Brown.
Quebec NDP MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau says she has become the target of personal attacks from members of the public since she was elbowed in the House of Commons by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. “I immediately told the prime minister to let go of me – now”, Brown said in a statement released later.
“I really need to stress that anything that happened on the floor really makes the prime minister irrelevant to the prime minister’s actions”, he says.
Trudeau said there would be no unanimous agreement over the future of pipelines needed to carry oil from landlocked Alberta, but the government’s long approval processes ensured any decisions would balance concerns from both the environment and the energy sectors.
All that said, video of the incident makes the elbowing look like an honest mistake, and, at least to my American eyes, doesn’t quite deserve the description of “physical molestation”.
Trudeau gave a second apology on Thursday to Brown, Brosseau, all MPs and the Speaker. “Members, rightfully, expect better behavior from anyone in this House”, he said.
The second apology was more honest than the one on Wednesday, which attempted to justify his behaviour, said Ramsey.
“I thought he gave an appropriate apology, it was certainly more heartfelt than what we heard yesterday”, she said.
A number of MPs rose to complain to the Speaker about Trudeau’s actions, with an angry New Democrat Peter Julian saying he’d never seen anything like it in his 12 years as a member of Parliament.
“I watched him. when he strode across the aisle. I don’t know that I have ever seen a member of a party grab another member”.
Advertisement
Tempers ran high in the Commons all week as the government pushed through a motion to limit debate on its controversial assisted-dying legislation, Bill C-14. That same day, Speaker Geoff Regan announced that the incident at Parliament will be examined by an all-party committee. I have just never seen a prime minister doing that.
