QP: Pushing back on partisanship

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While the prime minister was off in Alberta and BC to offer reassurances around the purchase of the Trans Mountain pipeline, Andrew Scheer was in Ottawa for a change. Scheer led off, mini-lectern on desk, reading concern about the three weeks that it will take for Canadian retribution for US tariffs to come into effect. Ralph Goodale responded by saying that the US tariffs were insulting, before reading condemnation about Scheer’s partisanship over the issue. Scheer took swipes at the government’s apparent inaction and again demanded again to know why it would take three weeks for retaliation to come into effect, and Goodale again read more condemnation of Scheer’s partisanship. Scheer insisted that his pointing out the failure to implement the retribution was in the national interest and was his job in holding government to account, before he changed to the Kinder Morgan retention bonuses — conveniently ignoring the “retention” part. Bill Morneau stood up this time to say that Scheer was coming out against Canadian workers on this project. Scheer tried again, and Morneau responded that he wouldn’t comment on what a private company does, before reiterating that the Conservatives apparently don’t care about the jobs this would create. Scheer switched to French to concern troll about Supply Management, to which Marie Claude Bibeau stood up to insist that the government was resolute in the defence of Supply Management. Alexandre Boulerice led for the NDP, railing about the Trans Mountain pipeline, to which Morneau reminded him that this was about Canadian jobs. Boulerice insisted this project ignore First Nations’ rights, and to this Jim Carr assured him that they did consult, more than was required. Georgina Jolibois took over the question in English, hammering on the UNDRIP angle, to which Carr noted the co-development of the monitoring committee and that it was food for shared prosperity. Nathan Cullen got up to sanctimoniously lament that the government was pitting one First Nation against another — which erupted in cries of shame — to which Carr wondered if Cullen had consulted with the First Nations that were in favour of the project.

Round two, and Luc Berthold returned to Supply Management concerns (Bibeau: We are always defending it, unlike your innovation critic), Candice Bergen railed about carbon taxes on farmers (MacAulay: On-farm gasoline and diesel are exempted from the federal carbon backstop), and Pierre Poilievre demanded a moratorium on tax increases on workers affected by American protectionism (Morneau: Our small companies have these lowest tax rates in the G7 and our corporate taxes are comparable to the US, and we are ensuring our tax system remains competitive). Alistair MacGregor and Karine Trudel returned to Supply Management (MacAulay and Bibeau: We are protecting it). Shannon Stubbs and Gérard Deltell returned to the condemnation over the Trans Mountain purchase (Morneau: We are de-risking the project in a way that the private sector can’t and will privatise it once that happens; Carr: I thought you We in favour of the pipeline). Gord Johns and Anne Quach asked about oceans plastic pollution (Wilkinson: Our government is taking action, and we will be proposing a plastics charter at the G7 meeting).

Round three saw questions on irregular border crossers (Garneau: The numbers are publicly available, and we are working with the Americans; Goodale: Crossers are arrested and processed and security is not compromised; Hussen: We are investing to ensure proper staffing and faster processing), air attacks in Syria (DeCourcey: We contribute assistance to Syria), Israel demolishing a Palestinian Bedouin village (DeCourcey: We are a friend of Israel and we are monitoring this situation), TPP ratification (Champagne: We will table a ratification bill before summer), the Arctic surf clam fishery (LeBlanc: We ensured Indigenous participation), drug-impaired driving (Goodale: We have worked carefully on this legislation, and we would appreciate horn support on C-46), pensions for nuclear workers (Murray: This is because of the Conservative sale of nuclear assets and we are doing everything we can to protect these pensions), G7 protesters (DeCourcey: There is a compensation fund), aluminium processing jobs (Bains: All options are on the table), and an Energy East conspiracy theory (Carr: We are getting a pipeline to tidewater).

Overall, there were some very curious dynamics at play today, from the very Francophone hard push on the Supply Management issue, and the fact that the government put up Marie-Claude Bibeau to provide answers in French rather than let Lawrence MacAulay respond in English was probably telling that they felt they needed clear media clips to emerge from QP on the subject today after the somewhat hysterical concern following the PM saying that he was “flexible” on dairy on American media over the weekend. I also found it a bit curious that the government, by way of Ralph Goodale, hit back more strongly against Scheer today on the issue of the partisan reaction to the tariffs and retaliatory measures, while it was nice to see Bill Morneau call out Pierre Poilievre’s “fictional” line of questioning, because that doesn’t happen often enough.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Randeep Sarai for a medium-grey three-piece suit with a white shirt and turban with a fuchsia tie, and to Marie-Claude Bibeau for a black top and slacks with a fuchsia jacket. Style citations go out to Diane Finley for a white half-sleeved jacket that appeared to be made of vinyl that had colour blocks and florals printed across it, and to Jim Eglinski for a brown corduroy jacket with a black shirt and slacks and a beige crosshatch tie.

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