‘This is not a hockey game’

Speaking with reporters after QP yesterday, Michael Ignatieff’s response to the Prime Minister’s reaction to the Speaker’s rulings.

This is not a hockey game. This is not a game here. This is democracy. The House of Commons is where our democracy happens. When the Speaker of the House says deliver the documents and get this Minister to tell the truth, this is not kind of a matter of indifference. And the cynicism of the Prime Minister is, it seems to me, an insult to the Canadian people. What matters here is we get a Prime Minister that actually respects the democratic rules of the game. This is not the first time we’ve been here. This is the third time we’ve been here. And it begins to strain credibility when the Prime Minister says oh, this stuff doesn’t matter. What we’re talking about here are the documents that a parliament needs in order to make a budget judgment. This isn’t a matter of detail. This is a matter of principle.