QP: Discounts and French villas

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Hours after the mandatory Monday morning Liberal caucus meeting and the presser by Justin Trudeau, Bill Morneau, and Bardish Chagger on small business tax cuts, QP got underway, with the opposition smelling blood in the water. Andrew Scheer led off, mini-lectern on desk, and read a demand in French for clarity on employee discounts as tax benefits. Diane Lebouthillier stood up to say that the document from CRA did not reflect the government’s position, and they would be reviewed. Scheer asked again in English, making a bigger issue out of this being a tax grab, and a Lebouthillier repeated her response in English — a rarity for her (which she has been working on). When Scheer asked yet again, Lebouthillier reiterated her response for a third time, but back again in French. Alain Rayes took another stab at the very same question in French, got the same answer, and then when Rayes tried to insinuate that she didn’t know what was going on in her department, Lebouthillier stuck to her points. Guy Caron was up next for the NDP, and he raised the non-stories of Bill Morneau’s villa in France, and his company shares not being put into a blind trust (never mind that he followed the Ethics Commissioner’s instructions on the ethics screen instead). François-Philippe Champagne stood up to praise the small business tax cuts instead, and on a second question of the same, Champagne reminded him that he followed the guidance of the Ethics Commissioner. Nathan Cullen was up next, and wondered rhetorically about Liberal promise-keeping as damage control. Champagne praised the small business tax cuts instead, given that there wasn’t really a question there. Cullen raised the villa and the lack of blind trust, and Champagne reiterated that Morneau followed the Commissioner’s guidelines.

Round two, and Peter Kent, Gérard Deltell, and Candice Bergen started concern trolling over the French villa (Lightbound: If you want to play politics while we work for Canadians, that’s up to you). Karine Trudel and Wayne Stetski railed about bankruptcy laws as they relate to Sears Canada (Bains: We are monitoring this very closely; the pensions are held in trust and can only be used by pensioners). Pierre Poilievre and Maxime Bernier returned to the Morneau villa and shares (Lightbound: We are focused on helping Canadians). Pierre-Luc Dusseault railed about Netflix and tax havens (Casey: We won’t further tax Canadians, but are investing in content creators), and Tracey Ramsey bayed about NAFTA talks (Leslie: We cannot accept proposals that will make the middle class worse off).

Round three saw questions on the budget cover costs (Lightbound: You spent millions on television ads), allegations of fraud at Kasheshewan (Rusnak: This related to a third party vendor and the RCMP have been investigating), the fact that Métis are not part of the Sixties Scoop settlement (Bennett: We remain committed to settling these cases through negotiation), Supply Management in NAFTA, Remembrance Day wreaths, the Netflix deal, impaired driving, rail safety, and the decision to split Indigenous and Northern Affairs.

Overall, it was a fairly annoying day, with yet more gross mischaracterization of the issues at play, and hysterical denunciations about non-stories. Yes, the tax issues are complex and it’s difficult to give a good response in 35 seconds, but they could do better than eating up time praising themselves for cutting (upper) middle-class taxes. The Liberals, meanwhile, have broken their clapping ban several times today, which is usually a sign that they’re on the defensive. Deploying François-Philippe Champagne to deflect questions on the Morneau villa/ethics screen was bizarre, but I will give minor props to Morneau’s new parliamentary secretary, Joël Lightbound, for not reading the responses and for trying to hit back at some of the questions (though he fell flat on his first attempt when it came to the questions on the budget document cover costs). Also, memo to Nathan Cullen: please stop asking rhetorical questions. You’re not going to get an answer, and it just invites the government to deploy happy talking points instead. Questions are not intended to be speeches – they should be actual questions.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Sherry Romanado for a blue tartan jacket with a light blue top, and to Seamus O’Regan for a black three-piece suit with a crisp white shirt, a black striped tie, and a pink pocket square. Style citations go out to Wayne Long for a grey floral shirt with bright orange buttons and a white collar and cuffs (and no tie) with a black jacket, and to Rachael Harder for a red dress with flared sleeves that were well on their way to becoming wizard sleeves. Dishonourable mention goes out to Karen Ludwig for a boxy double-breasted mustard jacket with three quarter sleeves and a black skirt.

One thought on “QP: Discounts and French villas”

  1. Do the LPC have a real ‘clapping ban’? Figured it’s easier on MPs to not have to clap. A ban seems more, what’s the word… formal?… than just not clapping so much?

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