Liberals apologize for post attacking Poilievre as Opposition seeks to oust Speaker

OTTAWA — The Liberal party apologized to Speaker Greg Fergus Tuesday for using partisan language to advertise his event, after the Opposition Conservatives and the Bloc Québécois called for his resignation.

The opposition parties called it yet another display of partisan behaviour from the Speaker of the House of Commons, while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his faith in Fergus isn’t shaken at all.

The latest accusation stems from a post on the Liberal party website promoting a summer barbecue event featuring Fergus, who is a Liberal MP.

The event details included a political attack on Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, saying his “reckless policies” would risk the health, safety and pocketbooks of Canadians.

“The promotional material of this event uses very partisan, inflammatory language concerning the Conservative party and the leader of the official opposition,” said Alberta Conservative MP Chris Warkentin in the House of Commons on Tuesday.

The language in the event details was automatically included based on a template for events posted to the website, said Liberal spokesman Parker Lund.

He said a miscommunication between the party and Fergus’s riding association led to the wrong text being put on the event’s details.

A spokesman for Fergus said that the Speaker’s team did not approve the text and that the riding association did not know the event was going to be posted on the party’s website.

The Speaker’s office provided a copy of the original information for the event, which did not include any partisan language.

The more-partisan version has been taken down from the Liberal party’s website.

“It has simply become impossible to make any distinction now between Speaker Greg Fergus and Liberal Greg Fergus,” Warkentin wrote in a letter to the Speaker, asking him to resign.

“Every ruling you give now — and, with hindsight, every ruling you have given — will now all be assumed to have been delivered with a red tint.”

The Bloc Québécois joined the call for the resignation on Tuesday, while the New Democrats called on the party to apologize.

“The Liberal Party of Canada has shown profound disrespect by publishing that without the authorization of the Speaker, without the knowledge of the Speaker,” NDP House leader Peter Julian said Tuesday.

“They should apologize to the Speaker of the House of Commons, and the House of Commons for acting this way.”

The party’s national director publicly apologized for the error in an open letter addressed to Fergus Tuesday, which was posted to social media.

“The Liberal Party of Canada unequivocally apologizes to you for this mistake, and we take full responsibility,” Azam Ishmael wrote in the letter.

Trudeau called it “an unfortunate mistake” but that “it doesn’t shake” his faith in the Speaker himself.

“I have full confidence in Greg Fergus as Speaker of the House of Commons, as a thoughtful, independent-minded leader,” Trudeau said in Philadelphia on Tuesday.

“The issue was dealt with, (and) was addressed by the party and the House leader.”

This is the third time Conservatives have called for Fergus to resign.

They asked him to leave the post after a video tribute to the Ontario Liberals’ departing interim leader in which Fergus was donning his Speaker’s robes was shown to a party convention. Fergus apologized for the incident and a study by MPs yielded a recommendation that he pay a fine.

Conservatives raised ire again last month when Fergus kicked Poilievre out of the House of Commons during question period after the Conservative leader called the prime minister a “wacko” and refused to retract the comment.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 21, 2024.

Mickey Djuric, The Canadian Press