Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to speak to this opposition day motion. I have had the opportunity to listen for the majority of the day to the debate and I want to address a few points. A couple nights ago when we had an emergency debate, I started off with some facts. I am going to do the same thing today because I think it is very important.
The fact is that almost 90% of adults over the age of 18 in Canada have been fully vaccinated, and 82.7% of people who are five years old and older have been fully vaccinated. Remember, people five to 11 only recently became eligible. Also, just under 50% of adults 18 and over have already received a booster. In my province of Ontario, it is similar. Just under 84% of people who are five years old and older are fully vaccinated and 45% have received a booster. I am even more proud to say that in the health region of Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox and Addington, 88% of those who are five years old and older are fully vaccinated and 67% have already received their booster. I note that my riding shares a health unit with the member for Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, and I think we can be extremely proud of this locally.
I want to take a few minutes to go back to the introductory comments we heard this morning from the leader of the official opposition that related to the blockades, the protesters and everything that is going on outside. I found it quite interesting that she raised this in a debate that really does not address that. This debate is about developing a road map, which I will get to shortly. For some reason, she spent a great deal of time on a personal appeal to the protesters, asking them to leave, and I was delighted to hear that. It is great to hear the leader of the official opposition finally get to the point of asking those who are participating in these blockades to leave.
However, I cannot help but wonder why the leader of the official opposition is suddenly making a dramatic change in her approach. A week ago, in an email that was leaked by who I can only assume is a very conscientious and concerned Conservative staffer, the leader of the opposition asked the former leader of the opposition not to do anything about the blockaders and to make it the Prime Minister's problem. That does not sound like somebody who is trying to bring unity to the House and bring everybody together.
Then, even more recently, we learned from a Politico article that she sat down with truckers and told them not to stop what they were doing. Sorry, I should say “protesters”, because I think the vast majority out there go beyond representing the truckers. She sat down with protesters and told them what they were doing was working and to keep it up. That does not sound to me like somebody who would then, within a week, stand in the House and introduce a motion that basically calls on everybody to get together and work on a solution. I am sorry, but we cannot have it both ways. We cannot be the saviours of the “freedom convoy” and the saviours of the people in downtown Ottawa all together in one when we are flip-flopping back and forth all the time.
I asked myself why the Conservatives have suddenly taken a new approach and a new direction, and I think it is quite obvious to those who are following this pretty closely: Public opinion is changing and it is changing pretty darn quickly. I even noticed it in social media feeds. More and more people are saying that what is going on in Ottawa is not right. This is not about truckers. This is something much bigger than that. By the way, where is the money coming from to fund this? There are all sorts of stories out there about GoFundMe and these other organizations that are drumming up money from the United States. It is being reported in other areas of the world.
The Conservatives are starting to get nervous now. They are sitting there asking what they are getting themselves into and saying it seemed really good a week ago and maybe it is time they changed course. In my humble opinion, although some of my friends across the way might suggest it is not all that humble, the leader of the official opposition can see the writing on the wall now. She has realized that it is time to change course on this because they are getting in way too deep. That is what is happening. They realize they have gone too far, and that is why they are asking the protesters to leave.
I want to read a quote for members. A Conservative member of Parliament said:
These blockaders are taking away the freedoms of other people to move their goods and themselves.
That is a quote from a Conservative member, talking about a blockade. It was not this blockade. It was the member for Carleton. He was talking about a blockade on February 13, 2020, blocking a rail line in the Tyendinaga area. Is that not interesting?
The so-called individual who will soon be coronated to become the leader of the official opposition has these incredible flip-flops. He is all concerned about the moving of goods down a rail line when it is indigenous protesters, but when it comes to what is going on in the streets of Ottawa, he is absolutely silent.
The member received three questions, a couple of days ago, from three of us back to back. I, the Bloc and the NDP all asked him if he supported what is going on out there, and he totally skated through it. He did not want to address it, because he knows he can raise money and get votes from the people who are outside. I think he also knows he cannot get them from indigenous protesters in Tyendinaga. That is the irony, the hypocrisy, of the member for Carleton and the Conservative Party writ large, because they do this all the time.
Conservatives flip-flop, and we are seeing these flip-flops. Let us look back at the past two years. They would say, “Close the borders. We need the borders closed immediately, right now. Why did we not do it three weeks ago?” Then, all of a sudden, they would say, “Why are the borders not open? We need the borders open. People needed to travel.” They flip-flopped back and forth on that issue at least three or four times in the past two years. Is that leadership? I highly doubt it.
What about the vaccines? The member for Calgary Nose Hill said that we would not have vaccines until 2030. She said that we were never going to get vaccines, and that vaccines would never be around. Then all of a sudden she asked where the vaccines were, why did we not have vaccines and why were there not vaccines everywhere. Is that leadership? No, but we hear it. It is another flip-flop.
What about rapid tests? Conservatives said, “We need rapid tests. Where are the rapid tests?” They used to say, “Rapid tests do not work. Nobody needs rapid tests.” They flip-flop. They literally go outside, stick their finger in the wind and ask, “What are we doing today? Which way is the wind blowing?” That is not leadership.
It is ironic. Not even an hour ago, there was a unanimous consent motion in the House, when the vast majority of members were paying very close attention to what was going on, that said, “The House condemns the intimidation of citizens and journalists, the incessant honking, the arson attempts, the shooting of fireworks in the downtown core of Ottawa, the flooding of emergency lines such as 911 and local police numbers by fake emergency calls, the blockade of essential road infrastructure and the overall siege situation currently being maintained.”
We sent this unanimous consent motion to the Conservatives ahead of time, which is the proper procedure when we do this. They knew what they were saying no to. One lone Conservative over there, obviously set up by the whip's desk, probably with their head down, said no and rejected the unanimous consent motion on behalf of the Leader of the Opposition.
This is the same person who says that we need to come in here and work together, that we need to be unanimous and that she wants the protest to end right now. It is clear that she does not want the protest to end for the same reasons the rest of the country does. She wants it to end because she realizes it is a political liability now. That is the conundrum the Conservatives have put themselves into, and they do it routinely.
This motion is calling for a road map. It is asking the government to set out a path and to put measurables in place to determine at what point certain things will happen.