A\u00a0federal\u00a0cabinet minister\u00a0who learned to deal with the public\u00a0while driving an Edmonton transit bus\u00a0was laughed at this week in the House of Commons, apparently for that very reason.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Amarjeet\u00a0Sohi,\u00a0the minister of infrastructure and Liberal MP for Edmonton Mill Woods, rose in the house Tuesday to speak about transportation.<\/p>\n
He began his remarks by acknowledging that as a former transit driver he was especially shocked to learn that a bus driver in Winnipeg had been stabbed to death earlier in the day.<\/p>\n
“Mr. Speaker, as a former bus driver, I want to convey our thoughts and prayers,”\u00a0Sohi\u00a0said.<\/p>\n
On the video recording of the proceedings of\u00a0the House of Commons, loud laughter could be heard coming from the opposition benches.<\/p>\n
Sohi’s\u00a0colleagues on the Liberal side could be seen shaking their heads in disbelief.<\/p>\n
“What I heard was laughter,”\u00a0Sohi\u00a0said Wednesday during an interview from Ottawa.<\/p>\n
The former transit bus driver went on to serve two terms on Edmonton city council, before winning a seat as a Liberal member of Parliament in the 2015 federal election.<\/p>\n
“I take pride in my background,” Sohi said.<\/p>\n
“I think it does demonstrate a streak of elitist attitude in the Conservative party,\u00a0where maybe they don’t appreciate we have working-class people in Parliament in the Liberal government who are making a difference in the lives of Canadians.”<\/p>\n
\nAdam Vaughan, a Liberal MP from Toronto, raised a point of order in the House on Wednesday and asked that the laughter be “withdrawn,” which would strike it from the record.<\/p>\n
“This is offensive to the values of this House, to the values of Canadians and the diversity of all of us,” Vaughan said.<\/p>\n
But Conservative House leader Candice\u00a0Bergen refused.<\/p>\n
“There’s all kinds of laughter that occurs here,” Bergen said. “So we absolutely respect and honor all of the jobs that we’ve done, and the experience we bring to this house.”<\/p>\n
Sohi\u00a0said\u00a0he wasn’t personally\u00a0upset\u00a0by the laughter, but he thought Bergen’s statement fell short of what was required.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Article source: http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/edmonton\/conservative-mps-laugh-at-amarjeet-sohi-s-past-as-ets-bus-driver-1.3984808?cmp=rss<\/a>\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A\u00a0federal\u00a0cabinet minister\u00a0who learned to deal with the public\u00a0while driving an Edmonton transit bus\u00a0was laughed at this week in the House of Commons, apparently for that very reason.\u00a0 Amarjeet\u00a0Sohi,\u00a0the minister of infrastructure and Liberal MP for Edmonton Mill Woods, rose in the house Tuesday to speak about transportation. He began his remarks by acknowledging that as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-70880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political","tag-political"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70880\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}