QP: Howling for a referendum 

Posted on by

While the March for Life went on outside the Centre Block, and while Justin Trudeau was in town — having met with the premier of New Brunswick only a couple of hours before — he didn’t show up at QP. Then again, neither did Rona Ambrose or Thomas Mulcair. Jason Kenney led off, demanding a referendum on electoral reform as the provinces had. Maryam Monsef kept up yesterday’s saccharine talking points, and insisted that a referendum wouldn’t reach young people, women, people with disabilities or minorities. Kenney and Monsef went at it again for another two questions, before Stephen Blaney picked up on it in French, and got the same response. Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet led for the NDP, and decried the composition of the electoral reform committee, to which Monsef insisted that having the Bloc and Greens on the committee was indeed going above and beyond what was required. Hélène Laverdière changed topics and turned to Saudi LAV sales, wondering how many civilians need to be killed before it becomes unacceptable. Stéphane Dion reminded her that the NDP promised to respect the contract to win the seat in that riding, and when Laverdière tried to make it about a question of trust, Dion noted that the NDP changed their tune, not the Liberals.

Round two, and Scott Reid, Blake Richards and Tom Kmiec returned to baying for a referendum (Monsef: What about all the people who the process doesn’t catch?). Georgina Jolibois asked for mental health funding in places like La Loche and Cross Lake (Philpott: I am in conversations with officials on a daily basis on how to increase access), and Charlie Angus insisted there was no money for the government to implement “Jordan’s Principle” (Jones: We have started overhauling child and families services on reserves). Chris Warkentin, Bev Shipley and Jacques Gourde asked about the conflict of intent for the Minister of Agriculture’s chief of staff (MacAulay: We are focusing on agricultural issue and are abiding by the guidelines). Pierre Nantel wondered where the additional investments in culture were as they were not in the Estimates (Joly: I am working with Treasury Board to ensure they are funded), and Alexandre Boulerice demanded a rail bypass for Lac Mégantic (Garneau: We’re working on it).

Round three saw questions on the TPP, the Washington trip, EI extend benefits, trolling for support for a private members’ bill, softwood lumber, providing for Syrian refugees in schools, Jasper National Park, and the electoral reform committee.

Overall, the day was not much improved from yesterday, and Monsef’s talking points continued to lack any real substance. What’s worse, they were baffling when she insisted that women or seniors don’t engage in the democratic process, which is clearly false. In fact, they tend to higher voter turnout. It’s also a false dichotomy – one can both have a referendum and engage with marginalized groups if one so chooses to expend the time and capital to do so. That Monsef was using this as an excuse for avoiding the referendum question is specious and casts doubt on her credibility in speaking to the issue.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to James Bezan for a dark grey jacket with a white shirt and a blue tie and pocket square, and to Chrsytia Freeland for a sleeveless dark pink dress. Style citations go out to Julie Dabrusin for a blue-grey dress with a hypnotic black line pattern across it, and to Hunter Tootoo for a dark grey suit with a turquoise shirt with a orange-brown sealskin tie. Dishonourable mention goes out to Karina Gould for a black top with a lemon yellow skirt.