QP: The coming Trumpocalypse

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With Justin Trudeau and much of the cabinet off at an investor summit in Toronto, the front bench was full of seat warmers, but there were still 17 ministers present, which is okay for a Monday. Rona Ambrose led off, warning that the new Trump era will mean a carbon tax sets Canada up for failure. Dominic LeBlanc responded, saying they were looking to transition to a low-carbon future, and that the government looked forward to working with the new administration. Ambrose warned that while the Americans are our closest allies, they’re also our biggest competitors. LeBlanc noted the COP22 conference taking place right now, and that pricing pollution was good for our economy. Ambrose wondered about the future of the Keystone XL pipeline, at which LeBlanc said that it was the company that needed to reapply for a US permit, not the Canadian government. Ambrose demanded public support for the pipeline,  but LeBlanc stuck to fairly anodyne talking points about working with the incoming administration. Ambrose then moved onto NAFTA and the uncertainty the PM created by saying he would renegotiate it. Stéphane Dion said they looked forward to working with the US administration on a number of issues, including trade. While Thomas Mulcair was present, it was actually Jenny Kwan who led off for the NDP, demanding that mothers not be punished with CPP benefits changes. Jean-Yves Duclos said that the CPP changes were important, and that he was glad to see that they had other points of view to further improve the CPP. Brigitte Sansoucy asked the same in French, got the same answer, before Tracey Ramsay asked about the TPP, softwood lumber, and NAFTA renegotiation. Dion said that they were still consulting on the TPP, and when Karine Trudel asked the same in French, she got the same answer.

Round two, and Gérard Deltell railed about the lack of a softwood lumber deal (Lametti: The Minister is working hard with her counterparts) and the lack of action for farmers (MacAulay: We indicated what we were doing for dairy farmers last week), Pierre Poilievre declared that President Trump would love a Canadian carbon tax as it would mean jobs moving to that country (Wilkinson: We look forward to working with the new administration),and David Anderson railed about a carbon tax impacting farmers (MacAulay: Provinces can decide how to design a carbon pricing system). Ruth Ellen Brosseau railed about the dairy compensation package (MacAulay: We consulted and listened and that’s why we came up with this package), and Rachel Blaney decried public infrastructure being “sold off” to private investors (Rodriguez: We are creating the largest infrastructure programme in Canadian history). Mark Strahl demanded action on Keystone XL (Rudd: We will continue to work with our continental partners), and John Barlow demanded more pipelines be approved (Rudd: We need to restore trust in the way these projects are approved). Hélène Laverdière asked about weapons sales blocked to Thailand but not Saudi Arabia (Dion: We use rigour in all cases), and Sheila Malcolmson worried about the future of the Paris Agreement (Wilkinson: The minster is in Marrakesh right now and we are committed to fighting climate change).

Round three saw questions on a peacekeeping mission to Africa, PTSD benefits for victims of sexual assault in the Canadian Forces, financial transparency on First Nations bands, the Vegreville immigration office closure, lifting visa requirements for Mexicans, pay equity legislation, safe injection sites, and Quebec dairy farmers.

Overall, it was a fairly good day all told, with full ministers answering during the first round, and a reasonable stream of questions for most of the day about what the new Trump administration could mean, and the government was very careful to maintain very careful, measured responses. I’m not sure that all of the Conservatives’ logic held when it came to things like the Keystone XL pipeline (nor have they apparently learned their lesson that a government becoming a booster for said pipeline didn’t help get it approved in the States, and in fact may have hurt its chances). There were a couple of cases where the Parliamentary Secretary simply repeated the exact same lines as a minister’s previous response, which wasn’t very edifying, but sadly not unexpected.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Karen Vecchio for a brown suede jacket with a white collared shirt, and to Pablo Rodriguez for a tailored black three-piece suit with a crisp white shirt and vibrant red tie and pocket square. Style citations go out to Michel Picard for a tan brown jacket with a lavender shirt, navy and red striped tie and light blue pocket square, and to Brenda Shanahan for a frumpy white turtle new with a grey jacket with too-short sleeves and black slacks.

5 thoughts on “QP: The coming Trumpocalypse”

    • I do them mostly for fun, but never mean-spirited and always gender-balanced. I started doing them when I was writing for another site and it was a bit of a draw then, and I had a lot of MPs who actually enjoyed them, so I kept them up. It’s also a bit of reminder to MPs that appearances do matter (no matter how much we like to think they don’t), and this commentary has been a bit of a corrective for some MPs who came into the Commons looking like utter clowns day in and day out, and eventually stopped. That being said, it’s not about fashion labels and “who are you wearing” kind of questions, but simple style guidelines.

  2. Interesting tweet on Mark Strahl one of the most incompetent MP’s of all time. He should have no say in Natural Resources policy. He wants a Keystone pipeline but represents a riding that is dead set against a pipeline through the Fraser Valley. The epitome of NIMBY. When he was the secretary to the Minister for Indian Affairs and Northern Development in the Harper government, he never once went over to the Sto Lo Nation which sits right across the street from his riding office. Couch indeed!

  3. small typo: “looked forward to working with the US administration on a number of issues, including grade.” Should be “trade” of course.
    Just watched the interview with Trump on 60 minutes, and I thought that he came off quite reasoned and reasonable. His children were also quite impressive, I thought. Maybe there won’t be a Trumpocalypse after all!

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