QP: Turning Canada to a vassal state

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It being the Thursday before a constituency week, the benches were getting a bit thinner, and none of the leaders (save Elizabeth May) were present. That left Alain Rayes to lead off, reading concerns about the Americans being able to weigh in on a potential trade deal with China, and wondered what Canada got in response. Marc Garneau got up to read that the ability to withdraw from an agreement was normal. Rayes railed about all of the various concessions made, and Garneau was “mystified” that the Conservatives didn’t applaud them for getting a deal. Michael Chong was up next, and raised our sacrifices in World War I before complaining that the Article 32 in the new NAFTA makes Canada a vassal state. Garneau insisted there was no loss of sovereignty, and that any party could leave the agreement with six months’ notice. Candice Bergen was up next, and she whinged that Trudeau acted like a bully and called them names on the issue of Tori Stafford’s killer. Jean-Yves Duclos got up to read that politicians can’t make determinations about the sentencing of individual prisoners. Bergen proposed a broad policy of preventing child killers from going to healing lodges, but Duclos repeated his script. Karine Trudel led off for the NDP, worrying about the steel and aluminium tariffs still being in place. Garneau got up to read that the tariffs weren’t justified, which was Canada was retaliating. On a second go-around, Garneau gave the same response, this time without script, before Tracey Ramsey repeated the question in English, with a bit of added condemnation. Garneau reiterated the response in English, and for her final question, Ramsey demanded a task force to help small businesses affected by the tariffs, and this time, Garneau took a few shots a the NDP’s dislike of trade agreements.

Round two, and Bergen got back up to praise Manitoba’s decision to reject carbon taxes, (LeBlanc: We respect provinces, which is why we let them design their own climate plans, and if they pull out of the plan they submit, we don’t agree), and this was echoed by Mike Lake, Stephanie Kusie, Mel Arnold, Ted Falk, and James Bezan (McKenna: Good to see you talking about targets, but you think pollution should be free and you’re ignoring $26 trillion in economic opportunities; LeBlanc: If Manitoba doesn’t have a plan, a federal government will be applied and we will reimburse those funds to families). Brigitte Sansoucy and Ruth Ellen Brosseau railed about Supply Management in the new NAFTA (MacAulay: We defended Supply Management when the Americans wanted to destroy it; Leslie: Same response in French). Jamie Schmale, Matt Jeneroux, and Chris Warkentin demanded immediate action on Trans Mountain (Lefebvre: We share the Federal Court of Appeal’s view that a focused dialogue is needed, and we are not starting over). Pierre Nantel demanded a tax on Netflix like France got (Fillmore: We have invested in our culture, and we are reviewing our cultural laws for the Internet era), and Pierre-Luc Dusseault railed about tax evasion (Schulte: We have made historic investments in CRA to fight tax cheats).

Round three saw questions on Tori Stafford’s killer (McCrimmon: Parliament decided that this power doesn’t belong to a minister), expensive medical care for people in remote communities (Tassi: We have invested $2 billion in rural communities, and made our seniors programme more flexible), protecting pensions in bankruptcy (Tassi: We increased CPP and we committed to consulting with stakeholders on this issue), asylum claimant backlogs (Blair: You’re citing a case with a typographical error; LeBlanc: We have a plan and it’s working as there has been a reduction in crossings this year), possible Canada Post labour disruption (Hajdu: We respect the collective bargaining process and we have mediators involved in the process), survivors benefits for veterans (O’Regan: We are working diligently on this), a local issue (McKenna: I’ll talk with you after), and the report on Lac Mégantic (Garneau: There was no interference with the report, and TSB looked very carefully into what happened and we are implementing the recommendations), and Supply Management (MacAulay: We will defend Supply Management). 

Overall, it remained a fairly repetitive day, but this time we got the added interlude of a number of Conservatives each asking a carbon tax question in order to gather clips to blanket social media with them, presumably over the Thanksgiving long weekend when people will talk politics with their families. Because noting spurs informed debate like shitposts on Twitter and Facebook! The Liberals were especially bad for scripted pabulum today, which made the whole exercise that much more painful to sit through. You can do better, everyone. It doesn’t have to be this bad.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Terry Beech for a tailored navy suit with a whit shirt and pockets square with a dark blue tie, and to Julie Dzerowicz for a navy jacket with a black top and slacks. Style citations go out to Martin Shields for a tan brown jacket with a black shirt and slacks, and a red speckled tie with a red pocket square, and to Karine Trudel for a black dress with bright florals and black jacket.