QP: Memories of $5 fill-ups

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While Justin Trudeau was present today, Andrew Scheer was absent again. That left Lisa Raitt to lead off, who worried that the widows and single parents would be adversely affected by carbon prices. Trudeau called out the falsehoods of the Conservatives, and reminded her that Canadians expect meaningful action on the environment, which contrasted to the Conservatives. Raitt cast her mind back to when a person could put $5 in the tank and get to work, but Trudeau insisted that the Harper Conservatives didn’t get it. Raitt tried a third time, but got no different answer. Gérard Deltell took over in French, citing that the Conservative track record was to lower emissions while the was economic growth — blatantly ignoring that those reductions came from Ontario shuttering their coal-fired plants. Trudeau offered some platitudes about action versus inaction, and when Deltell repeated his “facts,” Trudeau noted that the economic growth Deltell mentioned was the worst in the G7. Guy Caron was up next, and demanded documents that proved that the government rigged the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain approval. Trudeau took up a script to read that the Federal Court of Appeal denounced the previous consultation process, and he noted their enhanced consultations and their agreements with 43 First Nations along the route. Caron tried again in English, and got the same answer. Hélène Laverdière asked if the government was attempting to renegotiate the Safe Third Country Agreement with the Americans, and Trudeau took up a script to read that they have been having conversations with Americans for months, and that the Agreement helps to manage the flow of asylum seekers. Jenny Kwan asked the same in English, and Trudeau reiterated his same response.

Round two, and Pierre Poilievre demanded the modelled costs of the carbon tax on families (McKenna: You didn’t read the report yesterday which shows you can reduce emissions while growing the economy; You are misleading on gas prices in BC, which is a supply and demand issue). Matthew Dubé asked in both English and French about the revelation that the government helped find documents to deport Hassan Diab (Freeland: We fought for his release, and we are aware of the reports that happened under the previous government). Alice Wong and Ziad Aboulatif conflated immigration and asylum claims (Hussen: You are trying to set one group against the others; Goodale: When people enter against the rules, they are arrested and processed, and they need to prove they need protection). Alexandre Boulerice and Nathan Cullen decried the late tabling of the electoral reform bill (Brison: This will strengthen our system and increase the participation in the system).

Round three saw questions on irregular border crossers (Garneau: We are constantly in dialogue with our American neighbours to manage the situation; Hussen: Compare our records to yours), protecting Indigenous languages (Bennett: We are working with communities and more is forthcoming), the demand for a papal apology and consultation (Bennett: I have made a request with the Canadian Council of Bishops), the Arctic surf clam fishery (LeBlanc: We made partnerships with Indigenous communities), the transportation bill (Garneau: You haven’t had a clear position on this bill), voter ID (Brison: You guys disenfranchised voters), and protecting pensions (Bains: We have strengthened the CPP and are doing more to help workers).

Overall, it was not a bad day, and while we still got some of the “Harper government” “YAY!” theatre for a second day in a row, it wasn’t as pronounced as it was yesterday, so that was a bit of a relief. I will note that finally — finally — the Liberals were starting to call out the fact that the Conservatives were misleading in their questions, it was not enough. They will need to go further. Also, I was glad that Catherine McKenna was doing some actual answering than just giving her usual platitudes about the economy and the environment going together. I’ve been waiting for this for months. I’m also noticing that the Conservatives are putting Pierre Poilievre up for successive questions in the second round, so that he’s taking all six slots rather than just two and rotating to other voices. While I’m generally not opposed to this – it allows some better back-and-forth, and we got a couple of decent exchanges between him and McKenna today – it nevertheless remains the fact that this is Poilievre doing his Matlock schtick, where he thinks that if he’s clever enough, he’ll get a confession from the witness box. But he’s generally not clever about it, and it just comes across as rather smarmy as he plays to his own back benches. Meanwhile, Lisa Raitt’s homily-styled questions also come across poorly, especially as they are frequently too easy to poke holes in, as Paul Wells has so ably demonstrated in the past. Today was no exception, and the responses I got over Twitter were fairly indicative.

https://twitter.com/redmcgraw1/status/991386995963330560

https://twitter.com/ReverendBlair/status/991436610540457985

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Matt Jeneroux for a blue-grey suit with a white shirt and a blue tie, and to Lisa Raitt for a cream jacket with a black dress. Style citations go out to Karen Vecchio for a fluorescent green jacket with a green-yellow top and black slacks, and to Mark Holland for a maroon suit with a white shirt and black tie. Dishonourable mention goes out to Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet for a bright yellow jacket with black slacks.