Questions are being raised online about Conservative Leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre's claim that a voting glitch prevented him from voting on lifting travel restrictions, as well as his assertion that he opposed vaccine mandates "from day one."On Monday, a vote to end COVID-19 restrictions for travelers and revert to pre-pandemic rules was defeated in the House of Commons. A total of 117 parliamentarians voted in favour of the motion, while 202 voted against it.Poilievre said he attempted to vote 'yes' on Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman's motion to end the travel restrictions, but because he was voting virtually from Thunder Bay, "the voting application did not register my vote as a result of a technical problem.""I will be raising a point of order to alert the speaker to the issue and asking for my vote to be properly counted as favouring the end of these rules," Poilievre said on Twitter following the vote."I oppose the unscientific vaccine mandates. I opposed them from day one and I will oppose them until they are all removed,” he added.However, Poilievre was able to vote without any technical issues on four other issues throughout the day. And following the the travel restrictions, any MPs who had technical difficulties were given the chance to speak up."If members were not able to vote due to technical difficulties, they may use the 'raise hand' function and the chair will recognize them," said Deputy Speaker of the House Chris D'entremont.Liberal MP Ken Hardie, who was voting virtually, used the 'raise hand' function to vote 'nay' on the issue."Thank you. Did anyone else have a technical issue?" D'entremont said.Poilievre did not raise his hand and the results of the vote were presented."How did you manage to vote on 4 other issues TODAY???? ONLY had "technical" issues on the travel motion??? How convenient!!" said one woman on Twitter."This tech issue should have been addressed first thing if it happened. Sorry but being the devil’s advocate here," someone else responded.People in the comments also questioned Poilievre's statement that he had opposed vaccine mandates "from day one." During the first leadership debate, fellow leadership candidate Leslyn Lewis also said Poilievre, "did not speak up until it was convenient.""You were in NB the day Premier Higgs make it OK for grocery stores to ban "unvaxxed" from buying food to congratulate him for balancing the budget with the $300M Trudeau gave him," one man responded. "[You said] nothing about illegal mandates. To claim you were against from day one is totally FALSE."Maxime Bernier, Leader of the People's Party of Canada, said on Twitter that Poilievre was lying about opposing vaccine mandates from the beginning.Bernier pointed out that following the 2021 election, then-party leader Erin O’Toole excluded seven MPs from his shadow cabinet who had spoken out against vaccine mandates, but Poilievre was reinstated as the party finance critic."A few MPs had the courage to challenge their wet noodle leader and defend Canadians’ freedoms, but Pierre Poilievre remained completely silent for two years until the Freedom Convoy arrived in Ottawa and O’Toole resigned. This is an outright lie," Bernier said.
