The Conservatives have ended a marathon filibuster in the House of Commons, despite expectations that voting on the 260 motions they had tabled to stall a vote on federal money matters would last into early Saturday morning.
Rising before the House of Commons shortly before 3 p.m. ET, Conservative House Leader Candice Bergen told the Speaker the opposition would end its filibuster of the government after roughly 21 hours of voting that saw MPs stay up all through the night to vote on almost 100 of the 260 motions tabled by the opposition.
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Those motions came in retaliation for the government defeating a motion presented on Thursday by the Conservatives that demanded Daniel Jean, national security adviser to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, testify appear before a House committee to answer questions about the Jaspal Atwal affair.
“Mr. Speaker, I note that the date on the table is still Thursday, March 22. I think you would agree with me that this has been a very, very long day. Canadians can be assured that while Thursday is coming to a close, Conservatives will continue to fight on their behalf for the answers that they deserve.”
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Members from all parties agreed unanimously, and the House of Commons adjourned.
The Conservatives had threatened earlier on Thursday that if their motion calling for Jean to appear before committee was rejected, they would table hundreds of motions to stall a vote on the government’s supplementary and interim estimates.
They ended up tabling 260 motions opposing individual lines of those estimates, which, as budget bills, are votes of confidence.
Had any of those 260 motions not been defeated, it could have triggered an election.
WATCH: The Conservatives ended their hours-long filibuster Friday afternoon, more than 20 hours after it began
That possibility kept the majority of Liberal MPs at their seats all through the night to vote as each motion came up before the House but after roughly 21 hours, Bergen rose to say the parties had reached an agreement to end the filibuster and adopt the estimates.
With the House of Commons now adjourned, MPs can now head home and rest up before the legislative agenda resumes on Monday for another week of political wrangling.
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