OTTAWA – Conservative MP Peter Goldring says he is trying to raise awareness among his Senate colleagues that motions to suspend three senators without pay are “wrong.”
“I’m going to be talking to people. I’m gaining support,” Goldring said outside the chamber Friday.
READ MORE: Debate on senator suspensions continues Friday
And he may even plead with Governor General David Johnston to remove it.
“It should not be a question of voting against this motion. It should be a point that the motion should not be there,” the Edmonton East MP said.
MORE: Conservatives move to limit debate on motions to suspend three senators
“The motion should be removed, and if it takes the Governor General to do it, then it should be removed.”
READ MORE: Tories divided on Senate motion as debate continues
His remarks come the day after Conservative Sen. Don Plett rose in the chamber and said he cannot support the motions in their current form, urging fellow senators to “do the right thing.”
Goldring, recently welcomed back into caucus after being found not guilty of refusing to provide a breath sample, said he knows of 80 fellow MPs who are also against the motion to suspend Senators Pamela Wallin, Mike Duffy and Patrick Brazeau.
But he admits he’s the only MP publicly standing up for them.
MORE: ‘You will never break my spirit,’ a defiant Wallin says in her Senate defence
“I’m standing up here not just as a member of Parliament but I’m standing up here for those people’s rights.”
He said he’ll be phoning and meeting senators throughout the day.
And he urged Canadians to get involved.
“I really think this is the time and the place for the public to speak up and say, are their rights important?”
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