QP: A level of disgust

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While Justin Trudeau was present, which is rare for a Thursday, Andrew Scheer was off in Toronto to give a speech, meaning that we wouldn’t get a repeat of some of the back-and-forth we got yesterday. Pierre Poilievre led off, and, predictably, led off with the insider trading allegations — sorry, not allegations, “just questions.” Trudeau again noted that the opposition was “in a jam” because they made allegations on Monday that they wouldn’t repeat, which pretty much proved that they were baseless. Poilievre brought in that Global News report which intimated that Morneau’s father was similarly tipped off, and Trudeau noted that the Conservatives couldn’t attack on substance, so they went for smears instead. After another round of the same, Alain Rayes took over in French, adding the demand that Morneau should be fired, and Trudeau reiterated the problem that the opposition finds themselves in. Rayes gave it another shot, but Trudeau reiterated that this was a smear campaign because they couldn’t touch the government’s fiscal record. Guy Caron was up next, for the NDP, and he demanded that the PM set the record straight on when the shares were sold. Trudeau responded with some jabs about how far that party had fallen since the previous election and how ineffective they were when it came to economic growth in the previous parliament. Caron switched to English to insist that this was all a matter of perception. Trudeau reiterated that they were so desperate as to engage in fabrications that they won’t repeat out of the House. Caron tried again, and Trudeau praised Morneau’s hard work on the economy, and Caron tried another time in both English and French, but Trudeau’s response didn’t change, and remained just as pointed.

Round two, and Mark Strahl lamented that the government was threatening them instead of answering questions (Morneau: I have disclosed everything and I assume that you can read), Poilievre tried again (Morneau: I have a level of disgust for how low this has sunk; you don’t understand how markets move). Alexandre Boulerice and Nathan Cullen repeated the allegations that Morneau tipped his father off (Morneau: It’s sad to see a question like that in this place; No one outside of the close circle in the Department of Finance knew about the timing of the tax change). Maxime Bernier tried to parse Morneau’s responses to prove that he sold shares (Morneau: I gave direction to sell shares when I was elected, I don’t know what date they sold), and Kelly Block and John Brassard stuck to scripts rather than responding to what Morneau said (Morneau: I have answered this). Sheila Malcolmson and Romeo Saganah lamented that Bill S-3 doesn’t go far enough (Bennett: We are committed to working with First Nations, and the bill removes inequities since the modern registration regime).

Round three returned to yet more questions on Morneau’s share sales, regulations around the Kinder Morgan pipeline, the closure of community newspapers (Joly: We support print media), and the Bloc made allegations of shady fundraising in the PM’s riding.

Overall, let’s start with the big event where Blake Richards got removed for heckling. Basically, the Speaker called on him to stop three times, and Richards didn’t, before the Speaker called on the Sergeant-at-Arms to remove him from the chamber. Richards packed up his papers and briefcase and headed out the side doors while the Sergeant followed, while some of Richards’ fellow Conservatives applauded him, others admonishing the Speaker for the move. Nevertheless, we haven’t seen this happen here in years, and it’s a sign that Speaker Regan has far less tolerance for shenanigans than his predecessors did. As for the rest of QP, both Trudeau and Morneau were way punchier than they have been previously, and Morneau was particularly feistier over the fact that he accused the opposition of going after his father, thanks to that Global article which contained a number of wrong facts and dubious correlations. That also became this lament about how nasty politics can be, which on the one hand is a bit naïve, but on the other hand, the pile-on against Morneau really has reached some dizzying proportions. That said, he also gave a lot more frank responses today than he has previously, but as with any time this happens, some of the quicker members of the opposition – Bernier and Poilievre in this case – tried to parse those responses into some kind of admission of guilt. (Note: This is why ministers tend to reply with pabulum, because anything they say gets repeated in a disingenuous manner). Meanwhile, we once again got virtually no questions about an actual issue of substance that the government should be held to account for, while this particular pile-on of exhausted outrage continues apace.

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Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Julie Dzerowicz for a light blue collared share with a black suit, and to Pablo Rodriguez for a dark grey three-piece suit with a crisp white shirt and a dark brown tie. Style citations go out to Jean-Claude Poissant for a medium grey suit with a faded cranberry shirt and a burgundy tie, and go Mélanie Joly for a navy dress with white piping.