Throne speech to lay out Liberal priorities in new Parliament

OTTAWA —
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be spelling out his government’s key priorities and commitments for his third mandate in a speech from the throne today.

Expected to focus on the Liberals’ election platform commitments, the speech will be delivered by Gov. Gen. Mary May Simon in the Senate chamber. It’s the first time Canada’s first Indigenous governor general will be reading a throne speech.

“It’s going to be a good speech,” Trudeau told reporters briefly on his way into a cabinet meeting on the Hill Tuesday morning.

Many of the key issues facing parliamentarians in 2021 are the same as those that the previous Parliament was occupied with, and are expected to be noted in today’s address: the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and proper health and economic responses to it, affordability, Indigenous reconciliation, and climate change.

After thrusting the country into a pandemic election campaign in hopes of a third term under majority rule, and receiving instead a second minority, Trudeau said the message voters sent was to get “back to work.”

“The moment we face demands real important change, and you have given this Parliament and this government clear direction,” Trudeau said on election night.

Expect references to the need for cross-party collaboration in the speech as the Liberals have a lot to get going on with less than 20 days on the House of Commons sitting calendar before the holiday break.

Among the priorities the government has said it intends to introduce and pass within the next few weeks are: the anticipated extension of COVID-19 aid benefits, implementation of 10 days of paid sick leave for all federal workers, a new bill imposing criminal sanctions on those who threaten health-care workers or medical facilities, and the long-promised ban on LGBTQ2S+ conversion therapy practices.

The speech from the throne is the main event of the opening of a new session of Parliament, which kicked off on Monday with cross-party conflict over the vaccine mandate on the Hill as well as the re-election of Anthony Rota as speaker.

After COVID-19 upended some of the elements of the last speech from the throne following Trudeau’s summer 2020 prorogation, the 2021 ceremony is expected to look and feel a bit more like traditional throne speeches.

Before the event, MPs will be summoned by the Usher of the Black Rod, who acts as the personal messenger of the Governor General, to attend.

Typically, MPs would just walk down the hall to the Senate from the House chamber, but because under the decade of construction the House and Senate continue to be in their “temporary” spaces of West Block and the Senate of Canada Building a few blocks from each other, Parliament Hill shuttle buses will transport participants.

Opposition leaders will be reacting to the speech later this afternoon, and the rules provide for up to six days of debate on the speech in the House before it is put to a vote, in what may be the first confidence vote this government faces.