Politicians react to the ‘MP with bike’ scandal

On Monday, following Question Period, Conservative MP Ed Fast raised a point of order to say that the bicycle in the frame of Steven Guilbeault’s video feed was a prop, and unparliamentary. Guilbeault is the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change and had a sweet purple Marinoni fixie hanging behind him.

During the point of order following question period, Fast said that Minister Steven Guilbeault had the bike hanging behind him to “make a statement about his environmental cred.”

“Mr. Speaker, the point is, there’s a rule that you cannot do indirectly what you cannot do directly. What the minister has done is blatantly use a prop because he’s now doing it from the safety of some other office,” Fast said.

Guilbeault quickly took to Twitter to address noting, (with a hint of sarcasm that he should, “also remove my plants and books, other dangerous props.”

Thank you for the kind words about the bike! It was made with care right here in Montréal, and I’m proud to ride it twelve months of the year. https://t.co/ROtDiJG6Mj

— Steven Guilbeault (@s_guilbeault) November 30, 2021

“The bike has been there long before we started doing virtual Parliament,” Guillbeault said. “In fact, it has also been there for months as I was taking questions as heritage minister. Strange that after almost a year, it’s become an issue.”

Other past and present MPs were quick to chime in that Fast is from Abbotsford, which is suffering terrible floods and that a bike hanging in the background should be the least of his concerns.

Let’s all remember that Ed Fast is the MP for Abbotsford, an area currently dealing with extreme flooding and damage; but his big concern in the House of Commons is Steven Guilbeault’s bike! https://t.co/bAMjTDB1ql

— Bernadette Jordan (@BernJordanMP) November 30, 2021

On the issue of “props,” many chimed in that perhaps its all in the eye of the beholder.

Back to Fast's point of order re> Guilbeault's 'prop' bike – this cpc MP had knives on his wall. pic.twitter.com/Ow6P8xdAdS

— toni (@tonih_78) November 30, 2021

Here’s another MP with props to make it look like he reads pic.twitter.com/YCBO8gpxVX

— ??????? ℝℕ ??? ℝ??? (@AB_RN_WarRoom) November 30, 2021