A Canadian history of drinking, fighting and puking in Parliament: Full Comment podcast

Detractors like to say that House of Commons decorum has never been worse than it is today, but don’t be so sure. Charlie Feldman is the author of the new book, “Unparliamentary: Tales from Canada’s Colourful Unparliamentary Past.” He joins Brian Lilley to recount stories of foul-mouthed, rowdy, drunken and altogether misbehaving MPs and senators from all the way back to Confederation right up to former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s “elbowgate” that make today’s cohort seem tame by comparison. Along the way, Feldman explodes some fabled stories as myths, surveys a surprising scarcity of sex scandals and uncovers some things we might have preferred not to know, from the story of the salmon hidden inside an MP’s pants and why feces were once thrown in the House. (Recorded July 14, 2026.)

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