QP: Cheap shots on a trade war

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While Justin Trudeau had intended to show up for Question Period today, the new imposition of tariffs by the United States had him off at the National Press Theatre instead. Andrew Scheer was also away, off to Nova Scotia instead. Erin O’Toole led off, decrying the steel tariffs and called the prime minister a failure on the issue, which ushered in cries of “shame!” from the Liberal benches. Marc Garneau admonished him for being partisan on this issue, and stated that the tariffs were unacceptable and that Canada would be imposing retaliatory tariffs against American imports. O’Toole insisted that the PM didn’t get anything for months while the Conservatives were engaged on the file, and demanded action. Garneau reiterated his response, and when O’Toole invited the government to work with the Conservatives on the issue, Garneau relate his response for a third time. Luc Berthold took over to make the charge of incompetence in French, to which Garneau repeated his response in French, and when Berthold accused the PM of naïvely believing the president when he said there would be no tariffs, Garneau said that Berthold should be ashamed of his partisanship. Ruth Ellen Brosseau then picked up the same line of questioning for the NDP, demanding to know what the government would do to protect workers, and Garneau repeated that they are consulting on retaliatory measures and would protect workers. Tracey Ramsey took over in English, and over two questions asked the same thing and made more accusations that the government was unable to secure a deal, to which Garneau repeated his response yet again. Karine Trudel took over for a final attempt at the very same question, and got the same answer. Again.

Round two, and Ron Liepert stood up to counter the claims about Peter Lougheed made yesterday around nationalisation (Rudd: We are investing to protect thousands of jobs in Alberta and across Canada), Shannon Stubbs railed about the loss of Energy East (Rudd: We are protecting a pipeline against one province’s attempted intimidation), Bernard Généreux gave a bizarre insistence that this was about Pierre Elliot Trudeau’s dream of nationalising everything (Garneau: We are protecting jobs), and Michelle Rempel railed about the government chasing away investment (Rudd: We are getting things done after your government couldn’t). Romeo Saganash and Nathan Cullen asked if these pipeline decisions respect the letter and the spirit of UNDRIP (Garneau: Your party applauded Notley’s plan that included a pipeline, and we have consulted First Nations; Rudd: We have met and exceeded our obligations). Pierre Poilievre demanded that companies facing tariffs be exempted from carbon taxes (McKenna: The economy and the environment…; Lightbound: 80 percent of Canadians live in a province with a carbon price, and all small businesses are getting a tax cut). Linda Duncan demanded the sustainability report on the decision to buy the Trans Mountain pipeline (McKenna: It got environmental approval and fits within Alberta’s hard cap and our climate plan), and Don Davies listed communities who said no to the pipeline (Rudd: We accept a diversity of views but they need to express those views peacefully).

Round three saw questions on irregular border crossers overwhelming the governments of Quebec and Ontario (Garneau: We have been meeting with the provinces and they are open to asylum seekers if the rules are followed), the Arctic surf clam fishery (Beech: We included Indigenous people in this fishery), taxing Netflix (Joly: We are making changes to the telecommunications act), seasonal workers having EI problems (Duclos: We are helping these workers), the elections bill (Gould: We are ensuring that people can vote), carbon taxes (McKenna: 80 percent of Canadians already live in a province with a price of pollution and their economies are the fastest growing), compensation for any G7-related vandalism (Goodale: Arrangements are in place to deal with all eventualities), pipelines vs First Nations spending (Philpott: We are making the appropriate investments — $17 billion over three budgets), redacting memos about the meetings between the PM and the Aga Khan (Lamoureux: We have confidence in the Ethics Commissioner), and one last question on the tariffs (Garneau: We are there for the workers of Quebec and Canada).

Overall, it was quite a bit of chutzpah for Erin O’Toole to make the kind of attack against the prime minister that he did, and assert that it was a failure to secure a deal with the Trump administration knowing full well that Trump is not a rational actor and any agreement would not have mattered in the long run. Likewise for the NDP to have suggested that somehow the government could have secured an exemption by now is patently ridiculous. There is a reality to dealing with Trump that you would think would have other parties rethinking the urge to take cheap shots on this, but alas, that was not the case. One also wonders if this will backfire against the Conservatives especially, because it was a ludicrous narrative to try and put forward, despite their attempt to wedge this into the narrative that Trudeau is a drooling moron. You’d think that they would have learned after the last election that painting this picture of Trudeau keeps backfiring on them (and this is by no means a defence of his government’s competence, because they have lacked it on plenty of files), but apparently not. Meanwhile, the demands around resurrecting Energy East are not only bad economics, but transparent attempts at vote-getting in Atlantic Canada, and yet we still won’t hear the economic case from the government which is frustrating to say the least.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Mélanie Joly for a blue and black jacket with a black top and slacks, and to Navdeep Bains for a medium grey suit with a white shirt and a light blue tie and turban. Style citations go out to Ramseh Sangha for a grey suit with a brown windowpane pattern with a grey shirt and ruddy red tie, and to Sylvie Boucher for a grey and pink floral-patterned poncho top with brown slacks. Dishonourable mention goes out to Cheryl Gallant for a yellow dress with a black sweater.