The federal Conservatives quashed the NDP's motion to make question period in the House of Commons more relevant on Tuesday.
"We lost the vote on the idea, the radical idea, that answers should actually be relevant to honest questions in question period by 12 votes," said Burnaby-New Westminster MP Peter Julian, who led the charge as Opposition House leader.
The final vote was 132 to 144, and only three Tories voted in favour, not one of which was Paul Calandra, the Conservative MP who recently apologized for his irrelevant answers during question period.
Julian said the final count was close given the Conservatives whipped the vote.
"What a lot of the back benchers in the Conservatives are saying is, 'How are we going to explain this to our constituents?' The Prime Minister told them to vote against this, but now they are going to have to explain why they don't have to be relevant in their answers," he said.
Julian said the NDP would continue to raise the subject.
"I don't think the issue is over. Canadians are very clear this is making a mockery of parliament," he said. "We will continue to demand, as the public demands, that intelligent questions be answered."
