The opposition parties, calling the government's omnibus Budget Implementation Bill, "an abuse of power," gave notice last week that they will table more than 1,200 amendments to the bill which was returned from the House Finance Committee at report stage. In the end, there will likely be more than 700 amendments, setting off possibly hundreds of hours of consecutive hours of roll call House voting. The New Democrats tabled 503 amendments, the Liberals 506 amendments and Green Party Leader Elizabeth May tabled 200 amendments. The Budget Implementation Act is 425 pages long and will amend some 70 Canadian laws. The opposition parties say the bill should have been split up, which is why they will fight it. The federal Conservatives may not like it, but this is down-in-the-trenches democracy at work.

That the Conservative government will pass its omnibus budget bill has never been in doubt.

Similarly, its refusal to strip the nonbudgetary items from the 425-page bill was never in question. 

Such is the privilege of a majority government.

But as the House of Commons prepares to hit the home stretch with the budget bill front and centre beginning Monday, the question will be how much political capital the Conservatives will have spent by the summer recess in order to pass this mountain of regulations the way they were determined to do it.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper may have his majority, but like other prime ministers before him who crafted such victories, he did not win a majority of votes.

Green party Leader Elizabeth May is justified in her concern that our leaders do not understand climate science. If they did, they would be telling us climate change is arguably the most complex science we have ever tackled and we are many years from being able to meaningfully forecast climate.

It’s not often that a single MP can significantly affect important events on Parliament Hill, much less hold a majority government to account for its actions, but Green Party leader Elizabeth May aims to do just that this week, and should be commended for her effort. 

Ms. May plans to spearhead a campaign intended to derail or delay the Conservative government’s effort to pass its Brobdingnagian budget bill. The bill has enraged and dismayed many Canadians, not only among the opposition parties but among many Canadians upset at the government’s blatant attempt to steamroll Parliament by stuffing dozens of important changes into one piece of legislation, which it hopes to force on the country via its majority status.

Opposition MPs will find out today how many votes they'll face on the 871 changes they've proposed to the federal government's massive budget implementation bill.

House of Commons Speaker Andrew Scheer is expected to rule at 12 p.m. ET on which amendments will be grouped together for debate and for votes.

That many votes, taken one by one, would take days. The House speaker can group similar amendments together to speed up the process.