With the resignation of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and prorogation of Parliament, many Canadians have turned to watch the Liberal leadership race.
The Yukon will have a say in the next Liberal party leader, said Yukon MP Brendan Hanley, who is a Liberal MP.
Each riding gets 100 points in electing the party’s next leader: given our relatively smaller population compared to some other electoral districts, our influence may be stronger, he said.
Hanley spoke with the News on Jan. 9, the day after he attended the Liberal Party’s caucus meeting in Ottawa. He said the conversations among Liberal MPs were meant to provide the Liberal Party Board with input as they decide the rules of the leadership competition. These rules will address how long the competition is allowed to be, when the vote will take place, as well as eligibility rules for voters.
The Liberal Party’s constitution allows any registered Liberal who ordinarily resides in Canada to vote, given they have been registered for the 41 days immediately preceding the day of the leadership vote, and that they comply with the registration procedures established by the National Board or by the Leadership Vote Committee.
Hanley said the Liberal Party of Canada board will be meeting on Jan. 9 to review the input and set the rules of the leadership competition.
The Liberal Party of Canada constitution says that on the first count of ballots, first preference votes recorded in favour of leadership contestants on ballots cast by Registered Liberals living within an electoral district are counted. Then, the 100 points allocated to each electoral district are allocated to each leadership contestant on the basis of the ratio the number of the first preference votes received by that contestant bears to the total number of votes counted.
From there, the total number of points allocated to each leadership contestant from all electoral districts are tallied up to produce a national count.
On the second count, the contestant who received the least points in the first national count is eliminated. The votes from those ballots which marked that eliminated candidate as their first choice are then redistributed in their electoral district among the remaining candidates according to whoever was marked as a second choice.
There are a series of subsequent ballot counts: each one eliminates the contestant with the least amount of points and redistributes their votes according to next preferences. The first contestant to receive more than 50% of the points allocated on any national count is selected as the Leader of the Liberal Party.
While all of this is taking place — Parliament is prorogued.
This means that Members of Parliament are not meeting in the House of Commons or at committee meetings, said Hanley.
On one hand, Hanley said the prorogation does mean a loss. “It means the committee work dies and the legislation dies,” he said.
Among those include amendments to YESAA: the 2024 fall economic statement, tabled in early December, included a proposal to amend the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Act to exempt certain projects from re-assessment with the consent of affected First Nations.
The fate of those amendments is uncertain now due to the prorogation, said Hanley.
Hanley said another piece of legislation which would be of concern to Yukoners is Bill C-77, which establishes of a Commissioner of Modern Treaty Implementations. Part of the mandate of that position is to ensure that Canada is meeting its obligations under modern treaties with First Nations.
Since that bill only got to first reading, it will have to be re-introduced when Parliament meets again in late March, said Hanley.
Another bill Hanley said dies on the floor of the House of Commons is Bill C-61. It’s also known as the First Nations Clean Water Act. The stated purpose of the act is to “ensure that First Nations have reliable access to a sufficient, adequate and safe quantity and quality of drinking water — and reliable access to effective treatment and disposal of wastewater,” according to the text of the bill.
Hanley said one of the other bills which is now dead on the floor is Bill C-63, also known as the Online Harms Act. It, as the name suggests, aims to reduce the harms experienced by people as a result of harmful online content.
For example, among the Act’s many points, it would increase the maximum punishment for hate propaganda offences under the Criminal Code.
It would also require internet operators to prevent people from accessing content that “sexually victimizes a child or revictimizes a survivor, and intimate content communicated without consent, including deepfake images that fall under this category of content,” according to the Department of Justice’s explanatory note on the bill.
That bill is stuck at second reading, which has not yet been completed.
Hanley said if there is a vote of no confidence and the government falls into an early election, then that bill is likely lost.
However, Hanley said a lot of these bills were not making progress as the House of Commons was stuck in privilege.
“We have been for over two months, stuck with debating privilege,” said Hanley.
Since the fall, there’s been a stalemate in the House of Commons over documents relating to a green tech fund that received government money, as reported by the Canadian Press.
As reported by the Canadian wire service, the Conservatives promised to filibuster until the Liberals handed over unredacted documents to Parliament and the RCMP, whereas the Liberals are telling the Conservatives to move discussions of the documents to a committee, as per the Speaker of the House’s order.
In that time, no legislation has been able to progress.
“It actually makes sense overall, to have this time for a reset, and to come back with a throne speech, and then have a new leader in place to present to Canadians for the confidence of the house and for the confidence of the country, and whether we stand supported or fall in a confidence vote, then it will be up to Canadians to decide,” said Hanley.
However, he emphasized prorogation is not a vacation. The constituency office remains open, and the services offered through the office are still available.
Hanley said he’ll have more time to spend with other Yukoners in the territory, and get a sense of how they feel about candidates running for the Liberal Party leadership. Hanley said he will use those conversations to help inform his own choice when it comes time to vote for a new Liberal Party leader.
Contact Talar Stockton at talar.stockton@yukon-news.com
Editor's note: An earlier version of this article stated the Yukon gets 100 votes - the correct terminology was 100 points, not 100 votes. The News regrets the error.
