Although Justin Trudeau was present for QP today, Andrew Scheer was not, once again. Lisa Raitt led off, asking succinctly if it was true that Trump took the five-year sunset clause off of the negotiating table. Trudeau got up to first thank the opposition and all Canadian for standing together, and after some applause, noted that they are still negotiating but they would not accept a sunset clause. Raitt wanted a clear yes or no if it was taken off the table, and Trudeau spoke around the question, talking about his meeting on Friday, but would not say if it was taken off that table. Raitt said that she would have to take it as a yes, and worried about the trade war on families in her riding, before demanding that carbon taxes and payroll taxes be scrapped. Trudeau said that no, the sunset clause was not taken off the table, before talking about how tariffs would hurt American workers as well as Canadian ones. Alain Rayes took over in French, and concern trolled about the deficit and the drop in foreign investment, and worried how the prime minister could say he was good for the economy. Trudeau deployed his well-worn talking point about Canadians choosing investment instead of austerity. Rayes listed areas where the Fraser Institute says that taxes went up, to which Trudeau reminded him that the Fraser report didn’t take the Canada Child Benefit into account. Guy Caron led off for the NDP, asking about a First Nation band building a solar farm on their land while a pipeline crosses it, framing it as competing visions, to which Trudeau took up a script to rad that the Federal Court of Appeal started that the previous government didn’t adequately consult First Nations and his government did. Caron reiterated in French, and this time Trudeau read that they used to support Rachel Notley’s plan, before listing similar measures his government is taking. Alexandre Boulerice railed that they were not investing in a fair energy transition, and Trudeau reiterated his Notley’s-filled script. Jenny Kwan railed that CPP may invest in the pipeline, to which Trudeau repeated Notley’s plan, yet again.

Round two, and Pierre Poilievre insisted that Canadian taxes and red tape was sending jobs to the US (Morneau: Thanks to our investments, the jobless rate is at a record low and we have faster growth), and demanded the carbon tax be suspended until we get past this crisis (McKenna: Let me first recognise Paul Dewar, and we will protect the environment while creating jobs; Morneau: We need to call out the member opposite for incorrect facts, and the Fraser report doesn’t take into account the Canada Child Benefit and considers CPP payments a tax), and Gérard Deltell took over on the Fraser report in French (Morneau: Business investment improved last year by eight percent). Linda Duncan and François Choquette worried about the Paris targets (McKenna: We are investing in clean technology and have set up a just transition task force; Carr: Here is a list of investments we’ve made in the clean energy sector). Luc Berthold, John Barlow, and Mark Strahl gave some standard Supply Management virtue signalling (Lebouthillier and MacAulay: We support the system unlike your party, and here are some inflammatory things Maxime Bernier said about dairy farmers). Karine Trudel also demanded Supply Management protection (Freeland: We’ve been clear we will protect Supply Management), and Brian Masse demanded protection for auto jobs (Bains: We’ve stepped up in a big way to support the sector and the workers).

Poilievre and Deltell are citing a Fraser Institute report to back up their claims.
Morneau is disputing the numbers, which is a change from the pabulum he usually delivers. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) June 12, 2018

Berthold is right offended that Lebouthillier took a partisan swipe at the Conservatives over Supply Management. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) June 12, 2018

Round three saw questions on whether the CPP was looking to invest in the Trans Mountain pipeline (Morneau: They are arms length and we are not involved in any decisions), the Safe Third Country Agreement (Garneau: We are discussing this with the United States), a Toronto inquest into a shelter fire (Duclos: Please look at the announcement we made yesterday to combating homelessness), the Islamic Humanitarian Society getting funding despite hateful statements (Hajdu: If they have broken their conditions they won’t get their funds), a heritage museum that did not get funding for summer jobs (Hajdu: We doubled funding this year), IKO airport codes regarding Taiwan (Garneau: We will work with ICAO — but didn’t mention Taiwan), the St. Anne’s residential school survivors (Bennett: We won’t seek costs against claimants but will seek it from lawyers who are acting in bad faith), Hong Kong activists being jailed (Freeland: We are engaging with China on this issue), tariffs affecting Quebec (Freeland: These tariffs are unjustified and illegal and we will support workers), a supply ship to a remote community in jeopardy (Garneau: We are following recent developments closely, and I have asked my department to act quickly, and work will be done this weekend), and targeting sanctions to Trump’s business interests (Freeland: In putting together our retaliation list, we were measured and will be dollar-for-dollar).

Overall, Lisa Raitt’s strategy to force a response from Trudeau on the topic of the sunset clause proved effective, but was fairly risky, particularly as it has the possibility of playing Trump’s game for him. Nevertheless, she forced a clear response from Trudeau after he danced around it for two responses, so kudos for that. It was also good to see Bill Morneau being a bit more responsive as well today, calling out the disingenuous figures that Pierre Poilievre and others were citing from that Fraser Institute report on tax changes that Canadians have experienced, which was much more preferable to Morneau’s usual bland pabulum lines. Would that we could see more of these kinds of exchanges more often. I was also curious that the Liberal front bench is getting punchier on the Supply Management issue, which tends to be just some rote recitations of virtue signalling, and it was amusing to see the Conservatives get terribly offended by the swipes taken at them, given that these questions are ridiculous to begin with. I will also add that the tributes paid to Paul Dewar were a nice digression to see, even if they helped to distract from the topic at hand.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Blake Richards for a fitted dark grey suit with a white shirt and purple tie, and to Lisa Raitt for a red-over-black structured top with black slacks and a long cream jacket. Style citations go out to Jenny Kwan for a pink dress with black and white patterns and black trim, and to Robert Sopuck for a khaki jacket with a taupe shirt and orange tie with blue jeans.