QP: Poilievre makes a scene

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A grey day in Ottawa, but today, most of the leaders were away. This left Candice Bergen to lead off, wondering how many organisations got job grants to protest energy projects. Jim Carr replied that they will get Trans Mountain built, preemptively called out the false equivalence between protesting energy projects and hiring students to distribute flyers with graphic images of aborted foetuses. Bergen insisted that the Liberals want to shut down the energy sector, and Carr dismissed the concerns. Bergen demanded Carr tell the prime minister that giving funding to these protesters is wrong, and Carr reminded her that the Harper government gave twice as much money to the same group. Alain Rayes took over in French to rail about the same issue, and Carr noted his recent trip to Fort McMurray to highlight the jobs in the energy sector. Rayes tried again, and in response, Carr regaled him with a tale about how they engaged in a better process of Indigenous consultation where the previous government failed. Guy Caron was up next for the NDP, demanding the government come clean that they rigged the Trans Mountain approval process, to which Carr reiterated that they engaged with Indigenous communities in unheard of consultations. Caron tried again in French, and Carr noted that all of the Access to Information documents are all online and he can look for himself as to the process. Anne Quach was up next, demanding pay equity legislation in advance of the G7, to which Patty Hajdu noted the items in the budget. Niki Ashton was first concern trolled about InCel followers, and demanded a gender-based violence strategy. Ralph Goodale said that they have put resources to tackling these issues, and that they met with G7 leaders to get that material off of the Internet.

Round two, and Pierre Poilievre started to ask about the costs of the carbon tax on families, holding up documents that were blacked out. When the Speaker warned him about props, Poilievre clapped back at him, and the Speaker passed over his question, and all other Conservative questions of the round. Brigitte Sancoucy raised the coming class action around the Phoenix pay issue (MacKinnon: We can’t comment on a matter before the courts). By this time, the Conservative raucous was so bad that the Speaker suspended the sitting to calm matters down.

When they resumed, MacKinnon repeated his answer. Tracey Ramsay repeated the question in English, and got the same answer. The Speaker then apparently felt that Poilievre learned his lesson and called on him again, warning him about challenging or ridiculing the chair. Poilievre returned to his question on the cost of the tax, in a number of iterations (McKenna: It will cost more to do nothing; that document came from the previous government in 2015; It’s up to provincial governments to decide what to do with renovations and that could mean tax cuts), and Rosemarie Falk and David Anderson railed about the effect of a carbon tax on Saskatchewan (McKenna: Saskatchewan could use the revenues for a tax cut). Richard Cannings worried about emissions reduction targets (McKenna: We ensured that Trans Mountain fit within our climate plan when we approved it), and Kennedy Stewart raised BC’s reference case (Carr: This pipeline is within federal jurisdiction, and the Supreme Court of Canada has affirmed this).

Round three saw questions on irregular border crossers (Hussen: We have taken a responsible approach to invest in strengthening the border and faster processing; Goodale: Similar reply), women with cognitive impairments being victims of sexual assault (Hajdu: We have created a federal gender-based violence strategy and we are working with grassroots organisations for implementation), taxing Internet giants (Lightbound: We want to take a balanced approach, and we are working with OECD partners for a joint approach), the Arctic surf clam fishery (Beech: Your government started a process for a new entrant three years ago, but we ensured it included Indigenous communities), pulse exports to India (MacAulay: Your party’s only ideas about agriculture is ending Supply Management, but we will protect it), the Canadian Forces “weaponising” public affairs (Sajjan: We consulted on our defence policy and want to ensure we communicate it to Canadians), Raif Badawi’s imprisonment in Saudi Arabia (DeCourcey: The PM spoke with the king of Saudi Arabia, and we are continuing to make every effort), small business taxes on campgrounds (Lebouthillier: We didn’t change any rules), IRB backlogs for asylum seekers (Hussen: We are working with the provinces to look at faster processing), and nuclear waste management at Chalk River (Carr: We take this seriously).

Overall, we reached a new level of gong show today, and it should be no surprise that Poilievre was at the centre of it, considering his demonstrated level of maturity on a number of occasions. And even after the uproar, I heard from other MPs who were none too pleased that he got his questions back after all, which essentially rewarded his bad behaviour, though one suspects the Speaker did it in order to calm the tempers enough that they didn’t march out to the Foyer to make a scene. As for the responses, I would almost pay real money for Catherine McKenna to not preface her answers with “the environment and the economy go together.” She finally stopped after several responses, but the fact that it took several responses for her to start giving some legitimate answers to questions is really, really trying. Her reflex to platitudes is her worst failing as minister, which I hope to gods that she puts some effort into rectifying. Meanwhile, I’ll give props to Jim Carr for preemptively giving a coherent response off the top as to why the grants to Dogwood and the denial of grants to the Centre for Bioethical Reform are not not the same issue.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Candice Bergen for a short-sleeved grey dress with a black patterning, and to Raj Grewal for a tailored black three-piece suit with a white shirt, with a navy tie and turban. Style citations go out to Jim Eglinski for a milk chocolate brown jacket with a terra cotta shirt, black slacks, and a black and red tie with a saxophone print, and to Celina Caesar-Chavannes for a pastel floral jacket with a black top. Dishonourable mention goes out to Cheryl Gallant for a mustard yellow dress with black piping. 

One thought on “QP: Poilievre makes a scene”

  1. Poilievre is not very smart anyway one looks at him. He is a very poor MP on balance equal to the heckler in chief of the Scheer opposition Mark Strahl, Chilliwack-Hope but then again the Tories have a plethora of these. He not only is disingenuous at best, he is also a scofflaw MP having taken over 20 thousand dollars from third parties to visit Taiwan in 2017 with his fiancé ostensibly to further business relations with the Taiwanese, a job well done through the auspices and good offices of the Federal Trade Minister.

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