QP: Blame for job losses

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With the benches (more or less) full and all of the leaders present, it was looking to be a fired up day. Thomas Mulcair led off, asking about the lower job numbers from StatsCan, and called youth unemployment “scandalous.” Stephen Harper got up and insisted that the trends were clear and that they created some 1.2 net million jobs. Mulcair turned to income splitting, and demanded to see the budget. Harper repeated his job figure, and said that lower-income households would benefit from their family tax cuts. Mulcair then pivoted to Iraq and insisted that our Special Forces were in combat and that the Americans weren’t. Harper didn’t argue the specifics, but just insisted that the NDP and Liberals opposed the mission and that our forces were just firing back when fired upon. Mulcair demanded to know when it was that our forces were authorized to enter into a combat mission. Harper lashed back, impugning that the NDP were sympathetic to jihadis instead of our troops. Mulcair then brought up a case of a soldier’s suicide, to which Harper offered condolences before listing programmes that he claimed the NDP didn’t support. Justin Trudeau was up next, and noted the income splitting plan benefitting the most wealthy families. Harper made a dig about Trudeau’s trust fund, and insisted that working families needed their priorities. Trudeau repeated the question in French, Harper repeated the dig in French, and for his final question, Trudeau brought up the government spending $700,000 in legal fees to fight a court battle against a veteran. Harper tried to cast the blame against the former Liberal government for the problems with the New Veterans Charter.

Round two, and Guy Caron asked about the PM skipping the Council of the Federation meeting (Calandra: Yay our jobs and growth programme; Moore: We are working with the provinces), Sadia Groguhé and Jonathan Tremblay raised the number of layoffs in the economy (Kenney: We helped companies by cutting their taxes; Moore: We are making investments that are creating jobs), Laurin Liu asked about procurement such as a municipality buying buses from Belgium instead of Canada (Moore: There is a policy on busses and I’ll talk to you about it after QP), Irene Mathyssen asked about plant closures in her riding (Moore: Look at our investments), Jinny Sims raised the closure of Target (Kenney: We are working with those employees to accelerate their claims), Peggy Nash decried the “low wage agenda” (Moore: Your policies are dumb), and Nathan Cullen offered some kitchen sink outrage (Moore: Our approach is getting results). Chrystia Freeland asked about sanctions against Putin’s inner circle (Baird: No government has stood up for Ukraine as much as we have), Scott Brison raised the issue of uncertainty that a lack of budget raises (Oliver: Look at all the things we’ve done!), and Adam Vaughan asked about the lack of certainty on infrastructure dollars impacting municipal budgets (Braid: We are making record investments in infrastructure). Jack Harris asked about General Lawson meeting with Kurdish leaders (Nicholson: Operational security is a Thing), Élaine Michaud asked if the Kurds asked for armoured vehicles (Nicholson: We have sent over non-lethal equipment), and both asked about CSE monitoring Canadians downloads (Fantino: CSE is acting lawfully).

Round three saw questions on the tax worth of the Halifax Citadel and other locations, VIA Rail and Canada Post giving sports tickets to employees and clients (Raitt: This practice has stopped), the closure of Veterans Affairs offices, disaster relief funds for the provinces, the mission in Iraq, tall ships in Quebec City, the Algoma railway, and the lack of a national energy strategy.

Overall, it was a much feistier day, with some snappy exchanges, particularly between Harper and Trudeau, though the fact that Harper has fallen back to impugning motives and insisting that his opponents support the terrorists is tired and childish. Trudeau relapsed to the old habit of repeating the same thing he asked in French as he asked in English, and I know he’s trying to get the same bon mots in both official languages, but it’s tedious. I remain unsure of the strategy that the NDP were trying to employ throughout the second round, pointing out all the various job losses as though they were the government’s fault. I’m not sure what solution they were asking for either, other than maybe subsidies to prop those companies up, even when some of their failures were their own faults (particularly with Target).

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Michelle Rempel for a black and cream half-sleeved dress, and to Justin Trudeau for a medium grey suit with a crisp white shirt and burgundy striped tie. Style citations go out to Pierre-Luc Dusseault for a fluorescent blue shirt and striped tie with a black jacket and grey slacks, and to Françoise Boivin for a mottled grey fuzzy microfibre jacket with black sleeves and a white collared shirt.