QP: Wounded by your cynicism

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The Liberal front bench was pretty empty as QP got underway, and Thomas Mulcair was the only leader present today, for whatever the reason. Trudeau in particular had no real excuse as he was just at an event with students in the precinct just a couple of hours before. Candice Bergen led off for the Conservatives, lamenting the lack of new jobs produced by the previous budget. Scott a Brison responded, lamenting the lack of attention the Conservatives were paying to the international investment that they had drawn, such as Thompson Reuters and Amazon. Bergen moved onto fundraising issues and Bardish Chagger gave her usual “federal rules” replies. Bergen demanded the Ethics Commissioner police this issue (not really per place to, which is an issue), and Chagger repeated her response. Gérard Deltell lamented the lack of a date for a return to budgetary balance, but Brison reminded him of their middle class tax cuts and the Canada Child Benefit. Deltell then demanded to know which other tax credits the government planned to eliminate, but Brison dodged and praised their investments in economic growth. Thomas Mulcair was up next, demanding to know which electoral system that the Minister of Democratic Institutions favoured, but with Monsef absent, Brison praised their consultative process and to let the committee do its work. Mulcair decried that those statements undercut the committee’s work, and Brison lamented Mulcair’s cynicism. Mulcair then changed topics and demanded to know now how many journalists were being signed on at the federal level, Ralph Goodale said that the situation in Quebec wasn’t applicable to the federal level but he wouldn’t comment on any ongoing operations. Mulcair pressed, and Goodale reminded him that the Commission told a committee that the answer was zero.

Round two, and Pierre Poilievre railed about the size of the deficit (Champagne: We have been investing in Canadians), Diane Watts lamented the creation of an Infrastructure Bank (Sohi: We are investing in infrastructure to create jobs), and Alain Rayes lamented that the infrastructure spending was divorced from regional ministers (Sohi: Here’s some praise from municipal leaders about our infrastructure plans). Tracey Ramsay decried the introduction of CETA enabling legislation (Freeland: This is clearly in the national interest), and Ruth Ellen Brosseau decried that dairy farmers were getting transition assistance and not compensation (Poissant: We are defending supply management and are trying to improve the dairy sector in Canada). Blaine Calkins, Alex Nuttall and Karen Vecchio returned to the issue of fundraisers (Chagger: Let me repeat my same answer in case you missed it). Guy Caron decried the likelihood of infrastructure user fees (Champagne: We have plan for economic growth that includes infrastructure investments), and Irene Mathyssen asked about court cases involving veterans (Hehr: We remain committed to our veterans and changing their benefits for the better).

Round three saw questions on fundraising, procurement, on-reserve domestic violence shelters, the Penticton airport, the UN Human Rights committee, demanding an electoral reform referendum, reviewing pay for inmates’ labour, the Official Languages Commissioner’s office outsourcing complaints, the Vegreville immigration processing centre, education transfers, and Muskrat Falls.

Overall, it was another boisterous day where the Speaker had to issue several cautions, but mostly because it was largely a b-team day and the backbenchers were getting restless so close to a constituency week. Kudos to Scott Brison for being the lead responder for the day and able to respond to most questions off the cuff, though he didn’t always answer directly, while Bardish Chagger and Chrystia Freeland’s continued reliance on reading prepared notes continues to disappoint, particularly because I know they can do better and I have seen it before. Also, the continued attempts to link the current federal fundraising activities to what happened in Ontario continues to be dishonest and hugely shameless. You can do better than this, MPs. It doesn’t take that much additional effort.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Julie Dzerowicz for a black leather jacket with a white collared top and dark jeans, and to Michel Picard for a black three-piece suit with a white striped shirt and a lavender tie and pocket square. Style citations go out to Denis Lemieux for a black suit with a solid red shirt and a black and red tie, and to Candice Bergen for a black top with wizard sleeves and a taupe skirt. Special mention goes put to Chrystia Freeland for a traditional Ukrainian shirt and sash with a black skirt.