QP: Atwal evasions

Posted on by

With all of the leaders present for the proto-PMQ day, it was no doubt going to be wall-to-wall Jaspel Atwal questions instead of questions about yesterday’s budget, given the way that the news cycle is moving. Jim Eglinski led off, strangely enough, and he recounted being on the scene as an RCMP officer after Atwal’s attempted assassination in the 1980s, and wondered why the PM would associate with Atwal. Justin Trudeau reminded him that the invitation never should have been made and it was rescinded. Andrew Scheer got up next, and asked about the Indian government rejecting the notion that elements of the Indian government put Atwal up to it. Trudeau grabbed a script, and read about their respect for public servants and the advice they give. Scheer railed about Trudeau’s “incompetence,” and this time Trudeau went off the cuff about the Harper Conservatives going negative and torquing the public service for partisan advantage. Scheer tried again, louder, and Trudeau assured him that his government would never use public servants in such a manner. Scheer gave it one last shot, demanding answers on the media briefing that was organised, but Trudeau noted that governments organise media briefings all the time. Guy Caron was up next, expressing his dislike of the budget, and Trudeau got a script to read of all the great things in the budget. Caron railed about the plan to means-test pharmacare, and Trudeau read about how these measures built on actions over the last two years to make prescription drugs more affordable. Hélène Laverdière was up next to worry about the possible diplomatic harm caused with the India trip, and Trudeau, off the cuff, reiterated his previous points about trusting national security agencies. Laverdière wondered what the point of the trip was, and Trudeau read off the good news talking points related to the investments that resulted from the trip.

Round two, and Scheer was back up to demand a reconciliation between the theory of Indian agents putting Atwal up and Randeep Sarai inviting Atwal, and demanded to know who set up the media briefing (Trudeau: We respect the work of public servants and believe them when they give us advice, and if you don’t believe him, say so). Sheila Malcolmson and Anne Quach decried the lack of money for pay equity in the budget (Trudeau: We’ve taken many different actions over the past two years, and will introduce pay equity legislation as part of the budget implementation act). Alain Rayes and Pierre Paul-Hus returned to the Atwal concerns but in French (Trudeau: I already answered this question). Peter Julian railed about lack of housing funds in the budget (Trudeau: We put money in Canadians pockets with the Canada Child Benefit and we have a national housing strategy), and about the lack of an actual pharmacare plan (Trudeau: More about the housing strategy).

Round three saw yet more questions on Atwal (Trudeau: The headline is that I stood behind our public servants), the deficit (Trudeau: Canadians chose investment over austerity and it worked), the Phoenix pay system (Trudeau: We inherited this problem, and are hiring more advisors and doing what it takes to fix this), what Quebec got out of the budget (Trudeau: Yay budget measures), and tax havens versus Quebec priorities (Trudeau: We are negotiating with Davie Shipyard and we won’t impose new taxes).

Overall, it was a pretty repetitive day, and as usual, what could have been incisive questions about the Atwal issue were mostly lost among disingenuous framing of what happened, what the allegations were, and there was a lot of deliberately playing dumb in order to make things appear worse. I’m also not really surprised that the only questions that the Conservatives asked around the budget had to do with the deficit and not any of the items therein. Once again, it seems like the NDP is doing more actual work when it comes to substantive questions on policy (most of the time) than the official opposition, which should make you wonder about the state of things.

Sartorially speaking, it was Pink Shirt Day, and snaps go out to Kate Young for a pink collared shirt with a grey suit, and to Doug Eyolfson for a dark grey suit with a pink shirt and a burgundy tie and pocket square. Style citations go out to Stéphane Lauzon for a medium grey suit with a patchwork-patterned shirt and a red tie, and while it’s not my usual policy to cite someone twice in a week, I would be remiss if I didn’t cite Candice Bergen for her sheer white blouse with ruffles along the collar and shoulders and a black lace panel across the front, and a black skirt. Special mention goes out to Gordie Hogg for a hot pink suit and tie with a blue striped shirt.