QP: Applauding the ghosts of the Harper government

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While the PM was off in Vancouver to announce a new investment by Amazon, and Andrew Scheer…elsewhere (I believe Toronto), it was up to Candice Bergen to lead off today, concern trolling about the loss of foreign direct investment in Canada, and tying that to the coming federal carbon tax, demanding to know how much it would cost families. Bill Morneau replied, offering some pabulum about how great economy has been doing. Bergen sarcastically suggested that the Liberals are saying that the carbon tax will fix everything wrong with the world, to which Jim Carr noted that they have taken action through the oceans protection plan, strengthening environmental assessments, and their carbon pricing plans were all taking action, unlike the previous government. Bergen accused the government of covering up those costs, and Jim Carr read some stats about how much carbon would be reduced with their plan. Gérard Deltell took over to ask the same again in French, and Carr noted that the opposition had no plan, nor did they while they were in government. Deltell made the “cover-up” accusations in French, and Morneau stood up to offer some pabulum in French. Guy Caron was up for the NDP, and demanded to know if the government denied ordering the Kinder Morgan approval to be fixed. Carr said that he did refute it, and when Caron asked again in French, Carr pointed to all of the materials available on the website. Romeo Saganash asked the same again in French, and Carr listed consultations and engagement including the monitoring panel co-developed with Indigenous communities. Saganashed tried again in French, and Carr noted that they had made accommodations and that the conversations were meaningful.

Round two, and Pierre Poilievre returned to his allegations a carbon tax cover-up (Wilkinson: You had no plan, but we promoting clean growth; Here are some quotes from companies that like pricing carbon). Karine Trudel and Tracey Ramsey worried about possible steel and aluminium tariffs (Leslie: We are defending our workers and industries). Michelle Rempel and Stephen Blaney worries about asylum seekers having trouble integrating while more cross the borders (Hussen: We have invested to bring down processing time; You talk compassion when you had such low numbers and slashed their funding). Rachel Blaney and Pierre Nantel demanded that web giants be taxed (Morneau: We are coordinating with the OECD on how to best work together to tax them appropriately).

Round three saw questions on investment in the energy sector (Carr: We listened to the workers of Fort McMurray), postal banking (Qualtrough: We released our vision for Canada Post already), endangered caribou herds (Wilkinson: This is important to all Canadians, and we have been working with provinces and territories), elections bills having passed the date Elections Canada says they need to make preparations (Brison: We are moving forward on repealing actions taken by the previous government that made it harder to vote), Iran detaining a Canadian (DeCourcey: We always hold Iran to account for their actions), a plan to deal with flooding (Goodale: We never ignore the problem, and we coordinate with provinces to respond to any requests for assistance), ratifying the TPP (Champagne: We will move ahead with ratification shortly), Quebec taking on asylum seekers (Garneau: We have a plan, and have a working group that continues to meet), and carbon pricing affecting the North (Wilkinson: The territories have unique situations, and we are working with the territorial government).

Overall, the political theatre on display today was also the theatre of the absurd. Liberals – both ministers and parliamentary secretaries – had been issued a bunch of new talking points that all had them talking about how little the “Harper government” had done for the environment, or refugees, or the electoral system, or what have you. And every time the response mentioned the Harper government, the Conservatives would cheer, and some of them would raise their water glasses in a toast. And it happened over and over again. Meanwhile, Bill Morneau has defaulted to delivering pabulum instead of answering most questions (though he did, more or less, answer the question on taxing web giants). The fact that he couldn’t even refute a hugely misleading statement from the Conservatives as part of their question shows once again that the government is letting the Conservatives get away with lying with impunity, which makes this whole exercise one of tremendous frustration for those of us who care about things like facts or context.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Mélanie Joly for a tailored blue and black jacket with a black top and slacks, and to Ahmed Hussen for a navy suit with a light pink shirt and a purple tie. Style citations go out to Stéphane Lauzon for a medium grey suit with a black shirt and a white patterned tie, and to Eva Nassif for a cream blouse with a black string tie and a grey skirt.