Ottawa:
In an unusual move, the leader of Canada's main opposition party was expelled from the House of Commons on Tuesday after calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “a lunatic,” the latest clash between two men set to contest next year's election.
The opposition's official right-of-center conservatives are far ahead in the polls and leader Pierre Poilievre regularly attacks the Liberal government over a carbon tax that he says is increasing inflation.
“When are we going to put an end to this crazy policy of this crazy Prime Minister?” he asked Trudeau in the elected House of Commons.
Speaker Greg Fergus, a Liberal, told Poilievre the comment was both unparliamentary and unacceptable and asked him four times to retract it. Poilievre refused each time, saying he would use the word extremist or radical instead.
Fergus told Poilievre that he was ignoring the speaker's authority, saying, “I order you to withdraw from the House… for the remainder of today's sitting.”
Poilievre and most of his legislators then left.
Trudeau has a testy relationship with Poilievre, whom he accuses of being an extremist and a supporter of former US President Donald Trump's Make America Great Again movement.
Speaking to reporters earlier on Tuesday, Trudeau accused Poilievre of spending time with far-right groups.
“That is not responsible leadership. That's dangerous for democracy, it's dangerous for Canadians,” he said.
Expulsions from the House of Representatives are relatively rare. The speaker's office was not immediately available for comment on the last time a leader of the official opposition was eliminated.
The next elections are due to take place at the end of October 2025 and public opinion surveys show that the Conservatives would win a large majority over the centre-left Liberals, who have been in power since November 2015.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Our staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)