QP: Trudeau “on bended knee”

Posted on by

With the Prime Minister off in Argentina, neither Rona Ambrose nor Thomas Mulcair bothered to show up for QP either today, leaving Elizabeth May the only leader in the Commons – and she’d already used up her question for the week. Denis Lebel led off, lamenting the lack of create jobs and accused the government of “showing their cards” when it comes to talking about NAFTA — err, except that they haven’t actually said anything other than they are willing to come to the table. Navdeep Bains rose to reply that there are nine million American jobs tied to trade with Canada, and that they are looking out for Canada’s interests. Lebel repeated the exact same question in English, and Bains expanded on the size of the trading relationship between Canada and the US. Lebel moved onto the softwood lumber agreement, and Bains assured him that they were working hard on the deal. Candice Bergen picked up and railed about how naive the PM was for “waving the white flag” on NAFTA (again, not sure how exactly he did that), and Bains kept up his reassurances that they wanted to protect Canadian jobs under the agreement. Bergen then demanded that the government press for TPP to move ahead at the APEC summit in Peru, and Bains gave a dig about how the Conservatives negotiated TPP in secret while the Liberals were being transparent about it. Nathan Cullen led off for the NDP, accusing the government of “decision-based evidence-making” when it comes to electoral reform, and Maryam Monsef said that she was eagerly awaiting the committee report. Cullen claimed that the new survey the government was planning to roll out was to dissuade people from proportional representation, but Monsef insisted that they just wanted to hear from more people. Alexandre Boulerice asked the same again, only angrier and in French, but Monsef kept her happy talking points about being committed to the file and that she was waiting for the committee report.

Round two, and Randy Hoback and Todd Doherty returned to the hysteria around NAFTA talks (Lametti: We will always look at ways to strengthen our relationship and better our agreements), Gérard Deltell demanded a date for a return to a balanced budget (Morneau: Investments will build a better future), and Diane Watts was concerned about the design of the Infrastructure Bank (Sohi: We added millions more to our initial commitment to infrastructure), and Alain Rayes was concerned that rural infrastructure projects would be left by the wayside (Sohi: Here is some praise for our plan). Rachel Blaney wailed that Adam Vaughan called people stupid about their concerns over the Infrastructure Bank (Sohi: We are investing in partnership with provinces and municipalities), and Guy Caron worried about the demand for a return on these projects (Sohi: We are creating opportunities to Canadians). Kelly Block worried about export permits for Wood Fire LNG (Garneau: They haven’t submitted an application to us so we can’t approve it). Mark Strahl wanted action on Keystone XL (Carr: We support it), and lamented the process for reforming the  NEB (Carr: We are learning from the mistakes your government made). Sheila Malcolmson demanded shelters for domestic violence victims in First Nations communities (Hajdu: We are coming up with a comprehensive gender-based violence strategy), and Romeo Saganash demanded more funds for First Nations (Philpott: We are working with First Nations).

Round three saw questions on UNRWA funding, sanctions against Russia for the situation in Ukraine, Canadian troops engaging in Iraq, assistance for veterans’ claims, selection criteria for peacekeeping missions, financial records for First Nations, the Vegreville immigration processing centre, banning asbestos, the Phoenix pay system, and Muskrat Falls.

Overall, the hyperbole and pearl-clutching around NAFTA discussions were cranked up to eleven, while the characterization of the comments about merely talking with the new US administration about the deal were utterly ludicrous. I’m not sure that you’re actually helping the cause of accountability when you act with complete and utter hysteria. I also wanted to draw attention to that Kelly Block/Marc Garneau exchange because it is part of what is so broken about QP. Block started off by chiding Garneau about not answering her question on the Woodfire LNG project yesterday, and Garneau responded by saying the he was trying to spare her embarrassment because if she’d done her homework, she would know that the company in question hadn’t actually applied for the necessary permits, and when they did, the government would consider it. A normal person at this point would move to another question, but not Block. No, she stuck to her script and hectored Garneau again for not approving the permits when there are no permits to approve. Garneau chided her again for not doing her homework, but seriously, MPs – Stop. Relying. On. Canned. Scripts. You’re embarrassing yourselves, most especially when you’re given a straight answer and have no ability to pivot or move on.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Candice Bergen for a dark grey belted dress with three-quarter sleeves, and to Greg Fergus for a tailored black suit with a white shirt and a brown striped bow tie. Style citations go out to Jim Eglinski for a light brown suede jacket with a burn orange shirt and black tie, and to Diane Lebouthillier for a black turtleneck with a red leather jacket. Special mention to Ramesh Sangha for an eye-popping grey checkerboard suit with a bright pink shirt and a lavender paisley tie.