Canada’s main opposition leader Pierre Poilievre was ejected from the House of Commons on Tuesday after he called Justin Trudeau a “wacko prime minister.”
During a heated exchange, Poilievre called Trudeau an extremist and a radical over his Liberal government’s support for the decriminalization of the possession of small amounts of cocaine, heroin, fentanyl and other hard drugs in British Columbia.
The province said last week it would dial back the pilot project after an outcry over soaring drug use in public spaces and mounting overdoses.
“When will we put an end to this wacko policy by this wacko prime minister?” Poilievre asked.
Speaker Greg Fergus urged the conservative leader several times to withdraw the question, reminding MPs “to carry themselves in a way that is dignified in this House.”
Poilievre refused and in a rare move was ordered out of the Commons. He was followed out the door by his entire caucus.
Another Tory lawmaker was also kicked out earlier for accusing the speaker himself of “acting in a disgraceful manner.”
Trudeau, meanwhile, had hammered Poilievre for courting the support of white nationalists after a video on social media showed him glad-handing with anti-government protestors featuring symbols of the far-right group Diagolon.
Outside the Commons, Liberal House Leader Steve MacKinnon accused Poilievre of using “violent rhetoric, extreme rhetoric [that] should no longer be in our politics.”
Poilievre still refused to back down, lamenting on social media that he’d been censured by the Commons’ “Liberal speaker” and used the term wacko another six times to describe Trudeau and his policies.
With only one year until the next scheduled election, Poilievre leads Trudeau in public opinion polls.
Winston Churchill was able to insult his detractors and members of the opposition with eloquence and wit without getting kicked out of the House of Parliament. That’s when politicians showed true statesmanship. Times have changed.