QP: Everything is overwrought

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Thursday before a long weekend, and not a single leader was present in the Commons for QP. Denis Lebel led off for the Conservatives and he lamented the imposition of a carbon tax on the costs on groceries. Jim Carr answer for the government, praising the ratification of the Paris Agreement. Lebel asked again in English, prompting Carr to chide Michelle Rempel for her attacks on those job creators for their support for carbon pricing. After another round of the same in French, Candice Bergen railed about how uncaring the government was about Canadians suffering under the carbon tax, for which Jean-Yves Duclos reminded her that they had programs to help poor Canadians. Bergen went on a second overwrought round, and a Marc Garneau noted that the minister of infrastructure was at this moment meeting with municipal leaders in Alberta regarding infrastructure commitments. Brigitte Sansoucy led off for the NDP, railing about the imposition of health transfers on the provinces, to which Jane Philpott reminded her that they were still discussing with provincial and territorial counterparts on priorities and funding. After a second of the same, Don Davies asked the same again in English, falsely calling changed escalators a cut, and Philpott reminded him that more money was not the answer, but priority investments were.

Round two, and Ed Fast, and Joël Godin railed about the “tax on everything” (Champagne: We reduced taxes for Canadians; Wilkinson: Job creators agree with us), and Alice Wong and Mark Strahl railed about millionaire CEOs supporting a carbon price at the expense of Canadians (Bains: Carbon pricing creates predictability; Champagne: We are helping millions of families). Sheri Benson and Karine Trudel decried the wait until 2018 for pay equity legislation (Mihychuk: We have been moving on this since we got elected). Gérard Deltell and Rachael Harder noted the lack of increase in youth jobs (Mihychuk: We doubled the number of students to get valuable work experience), and Todd Doherty and Luc Berthold worried about softwood lumber (Freeland: We are still negotiating as we speak). Romeo Saganash and Charlie Angus accused the government of cheating First Nations youth (Bennett: We will ensure the same level of education).

Round three saw questions on Chinese ambitions on UN peacekeeping, accusation of a conflict of interest, fisheries habitat protections, youth jobs, fraudulent citizenship, China blocking a Canadian citizen from covering a meeting, the kidnapped Azer children, pedestrian crossings over rails in Montreal, a particular veteran’s case, and GHG targets.

Overall, it was a pretty terrible day, as everyone was shouty, overwrought and ridiculous — not unsurprising given that it’s just before a break week, and the majority of them would be headed for the airport as soon as QP was over. That the Conservatives decided to throw an absolute tantrum over the fact that Dion – both during members’ statements before QP and during QP itself – warned Conservative MP Michael Cooper not to play politics with the case of the Azer children, was compounded by the fact that they howled to the Speaker about the fact that Dion gave Cooper’s statement a thumbs-down (seriously, they whined that it was an offensive gesture). Everyone was acting like children, and they all need the week back in their ridings.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Chrystia Freeland for a short-sleeved black dress, and to Emmanuel Dubourg for a tailored black suit with a white shirt and blue striped tie. Style citations go out to Bev Shipley for a tan suit with a black shirt and yellow tie, and to Linda Duncan for a black dress with loud, garish florals.