Ottawa

‘I think the prime minister is confused’

Megan Leslie on what happened in QP

Speaking to reporters this afternoon, Megan Leslie explains her take on what had just happened in QP.

It wasn’t my intention to get a response from the prime minister. It was my intention to get a response from anyone over on the Conservative side to explain this discrepancy that they have, where they say a price on carbon is a carbon tax, we used to have it in our platform, now we don’t. I mean I think this is an ethical question. My last question actually was to the chair of the ethics committee to say is this on the agenda at committee? It should be in my opinion. Day after day after day, we see Conservatives stand up, They use their statements for the purpose of making up stuff about carbon tax. They use their own personal questions for this cause as well and I think Canadians are sick of it. I think it’s undermining what we’re trying to do in this parliamentary democracy where we debate actual issues and it’s not being honest. It’s not being truthful about the price on carbon. There are lots of ways to tackle the issue of climate change. A price on carbon is one of them, so let’s have a debate about it. Let’s be open and honest about what a price a carbon is, a carbon tax, cap and trade but they refuse to do that. It’s just about creating fear, pitting people against each other, divisive politics, the whole school of divisive politics and I don’t think it’s appropriate…

I think at this point, you know, we’ve stood up, we’ve used our statements in the House to say enough with this. Conservatives, you have this opportunity to talk about your ridings, to talk about ideas, to talk about policy and you’re refusing to do that, you’re just playing games. So we’ve been trying to think of strategic ways to get that message across. We’ve used our statements for it, which you’ve heard. So today we thought, you know what, let’s – let’s just get this out in the open, let’s actually just tackle the issue head on and ask the Conservatives about it and the response you got was very confusing. I think the prime minister is confused. I don’t know if he’s confused about his position now or if he’s confused about his position in the past, it didn’t clear up very much, but I do think it is an ethical issue and I do think it is an environmental issue that we need to talk about.

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