QP: Concern over a slight shrinking in GDP

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It being Tuesday, the leaders were all present and ready to go, because apparently it only counts two days a week now. Thomas Mulcair led off, asking about the new numbers from StatsCan that showed that GDP shrank ever so slightly last month. Stephen Harper touted his family tax cut legislation instead. Mulcair demanded a budget, but Harper demurred. Mulcair decried “all of the eggs” in the oil basket — actually not true — and continued his demand for a budget, but Harper kept insisting that they are continuing their Economic Action Plan™ and that it was working. Mulcair then moved onto this morning’s PBO report that said that families with older kids and those without kids in childcare will be getting more benefits than those with kids in childcare. Harper first insisted that the NDP wanted to raise taxes, and then insisted that all families would get an increase in after-tax benefits. Mulcair decried those families with kids in childcare being punished, but Harper repeated his answer. Justin Trudeau was up next, and he returned to the reports of negative growth in three months of the past six, and wondered when the government would come up with a plan to get the economy moving. Harper responded with a laundry list of their recent announcements, and insisted that the Liberals only wanted to raise taxes. Trudeau noted that giving a tax break to the rich wouldn’t help, but Harper insisted that forecasts still showed growth, and wanted support for their family tax break bill. Trudeau asked again in French, and Harper repeated his answer in French.

Round two, and Megan Leslie asked about the missing GHG reduction targets (Aglukkaq: We are waiting for information from the provinces — err, except the provinces say she won’t talk to them), Christine Moore and Murray Rankin wondered why the government won’t negotiate a new health afford with the provinces — wrongly claiming a cut (McLeod: We are at the highest level of transfers ever), Malcolm Allen and Ruth Ellen Brosseau asked about cuts to meat inspectors (McLeod: We are number one in the OECD), and Ève Péclet and Charlie Angus demanded reforms to the Access to Information system (Clement: We will be examining the Commissioner’s recommendations, and yay the changes we made in 2006). Judy Sgro worried about retail job losses (Poilievre: Trade, training and tax cuts), and Scott Brison demanded stimulus to avoid falling back to recession (Poilievre: The best stimulus is putting thousands of dollars back into the pockets of families). Hélène Laverdière and Paul Dewar asked about Paradis’ absence from a conference on aid to Syrian refugees (Paradis: We are rep represented there), and Randall Garrison and Rosane Doré Lefebvre demanded the government withdraw Bill C-51 (Blaney: Islamist Jihadists!)

Round three saw questions on the deadline that forces tens of thousands of temporary foreign workers home, infrastructure demands by Toronto, infrastructure needs in other cities like Montreal, transferring long-gun registry to Quebec, sponsoring Syrian refugees, the mineral extraction sector, and the forestry sector.

Overall, it was just as bad today as it was yesterday, only with leaders in the mix. Even when non-sequitur answers were anticipated in questions, they were still delivered with gusto. But hey, all that counts now is getting blatantly false talking points on the record. Praise be parliamentary privilege. It was also curious that the only time C-51 got mentioned was at the end of round two, which pretty much shows that economic issues still trump security.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to James Bezan for a medium grey suit with a light blue shirt and a red tie and pocket square, and to Lisa Raitt for a fuchsia jacket over a black top with a keyhole neckline and trousers. Style citations go out to Diane Ablonczy for a mustard jacket over a maroon top, and to Randy Hoback for a taupe suit with a bright green shirt and a brown striped tie.