A protest led by a Tory MPP has continued to disrupt the routine at Queen’s Park, with Progressive Conservatives causing a ruckus in the chamber Tuesday stalling Question Period.
MPP Bill Murdoch (Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound) and colleague Randy Hillier (Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox-Addington) pulled an all-nighter at the Legislature Monday night. The pair has staged a sit-in, which began after Monday’s Question Period, in protest against the provincial government’s refusal to hold public hearings outside of Toronto on the HST.
“How else do you get attention in this place?” Murdoch told CityNews.ca Tuesday morning.
“The place needs an overhaul, because there’s really no democracy here. I mean the Premier runs the whole show … if they have a majority, the rest of us might as well go home.”
The Liberals plan to push through legislation that would combine the eight per cent provincial sales tax and five per cent federal GST.
Murdoch called Premier Dalton McGuinty a liar, referring to a campaign promise not to raise taxes, which prompted Speaker Steve Peters to repeatedly order the Owen Sound-area politician to leave the Legislature. When the tartan-clad Murdoch refused, Hillier and other colleagues surrounded him and other Tories pounded their desks.
Peters then suspended Murdoch and Hillier. If they leave the Legislature they won’t be allowed to return until the start of the new session.
Murdoch said he’ll continue to hang around the Legislature in protest “until they kick us out”.
“We had about 13, 14 members in here until midnight,” he explained.
The PC tactics apparently worked, to an extent. The NDP claims all three parties had hammered out a compromise, which includes two more days of public hearings on the HST in Toronto, but that’s not good enough for Murdoch.
“[The deal] isn’t what we want. We want at least one day on the road … even one day would be better than nothing because everything doesn’t revolve around Toronto,” Murdoch explained Tuesday morning.
“We could be here [sitting in protest] all week.”
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said neither the Liberals nor the Progressive Conservatives are acting in the public interest.
“The most unfortunate thing is that with all of these antics going on we're still not getting the voice of the people heard on this issue,” she said.
“The people should have a say on this tax and the government is refusing stubbornly to give them that say and the Conservatives - their antics aren't helping.”
Murdoch said he consulted with PC Leader Tim Hudak before his actions Monday and he claims this protest has brought his party closer together.
“We’ve got caucus solidarity 100 per cent,” he said.
Meanwhile, federal Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said Tuesday his party will support federal legislation that would lead to the tax harmonization in both Ontario and British Columbia.
He said the provinces asked Ottawa for the green light to combine the taxes in order to create jobs and boost the economy.
The issue proved to be a tough one for Ignatieff as two provincial Liberal leaders want to go ahead with the HST, which is highly unpopular with voters.
With files from the Canadian Press