While Justin Trudeau was off in Toronto meeting business leaders, Andrew Scheer was present in QP, fresh off the plane from his trip to India. Sheer led off, reading his concerns about Canadian ISIS fighters being caught by Kurdish forces, and demanded that they be brought to justice. Bill Blair responded saying that they were taking the issue seriously, and were gathering evidence to ensure that they can be prosecuted. Scheer got up and lied about the government offering poetry classes to returning foreign fighters, to which Blair retorted that the previous government brought no returning fighters to justice either. Scheer switched to French to rail about the terms of the New NAFTA, to which Chrystia Freeland assured him that they got a good deal for Canada and listed people who praised the deal. Scheer insisted that the government capitulated on a number of fronts but didn’t get movement on steel and aluminium tariffs, and Freeland replied that this was Monday morning courage, and that they said she was being too tough in negotiations. Scheer retorted that they had a case of Sunday night panic and capitulated, to which Freeland said that the party opposite now wanted to capitulate on steel and aluminium tariffs, which they would not do. Guy Caron was up next and demanded faster action on climate change and to stop using half-measures, to which Dominic LeBlanc said that they had a coherent plan to fight climate change and to grow the economy. After another round of the same, before Rachel Blaney reiterated the question in English, and LeBlanc repeated his assurances in English. Blaney tried one more time, and LeBlanc gave his assurances with a little more punctuation.

“Someone put her down for a Victoria Cross,” a Conservative backbencher says of Freeland when she said they were saying she was being too tough in her negotiations. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) October 15, 2018

Rachel Blaney lambastes the government for failing to eliminate the fossil fuel sector. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) October 15, 2018

Round two, and Alain Rayes decried the government for not making documents available to VADM Mark Norman’s defence at court (Brison: We had a duty to do our due diligence at the time), before repeating accusations that Brison was lobbying for the Irvings, which Candice Bergen repeated (McCrimmon: This is before the courts; Brison: I had a duty to do due diligence after a sole-source contract was given by the previous government), and Peter Kent asked about Anita Vandenbeld’s robocalls for her husband’s municipal campaign (Chagger: This has been addressed by the member). Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet and Nathan Cullen railed about charities being silenced (Lebouthillier: We ended the audition program and are making changes to the law, but this is before the courts). Gérard Deltell and Blaine Calkins railed about pipelines (Sohi: It is unacceptable that we’re getting such a discount but the previous government didn’t get pipelines to new markets, and we are doing what the Federal Court asked), and Shannon Stubbs demanded that C-69 be killed (Sohi: Your government couldn’t get pipelines built because they couldn’t deal with the environmental issues). Charlie Angus railed about the CPPIB investing in things like tobacco and American privatised prisons (Morneau: They’re independent of government, and we expect them to live up to the highest standards of ethics, which they are doing), and Hélène Laverdière called for an end to weapons sales to Saudi Arabia in the wake of the Khashoggi disappearance (Freeland: I have met with their foreign minister and demanded a transparent and credible investigation).

These questions about Vandenbeld’s robocalls are not part of the administrative responsibility of the government, and should be disallowed. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) October 15, 2018

Round three saw questions on the threat of Huawei in Canada (Lametti: We have procedures to review their activities, and will use the advice of our security agencies), what measures would you take against Saudi Arabia if they killed Khashoggi (Freeland: We are very concerned, and we are working with our G7 and NATO allies), Saudi Arabia being on the UN women’s rights commission (Freeland: We will take no lessons…), school busses failing safety tests (Garneau: I have asked my department to take a fresh look at these reports), using harvest difficulties to demand the carbon tax be scrapped (MacAulay: We are monitoring the situation but have programs that can be used if needed), carbon taxes (LeBlanc: We will have a robust plan; Fraser: How about that Nobel Prize for the work on carbon tax economics?), roadside testing for cannabis (Blair: Police urged the previous government for funding for training and they denied them), Internet radio stations not being subject to CanCon rules (Rodriguez: I am consulting across the country, and they tell me they are pleased with our investments), inadequate stone being used at the Quebec Citadel (Sajjan: The contractor will use stone from the Quebec for the project, but your government allowed a contractor to use American stone on a previous project), Supply Management (MacAulay: We will continue to support Supply Management, and we will compensate the farmers for any loss of market share), and Saudi Arabia (Freeland: Same answer).

Poilievre is spinning a lie about large emitters being exempt from carbon taxes. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) October 15, 2018

Overall, it wasn’t a terribly brilliant day by any stretch of the imagination, and a number of well-worn lies made their appearances back in QP again that went unchallenged, so way to go there, Liberals. Chrystia Freeland was pretty scrappy today, and I’m not sure it was entirely warranted with the Khashoggi questions (which she used an excuse to tar the Conservatives with the brush of John Baird advocating backing down to the Saudis), but that’s politics I suppose. I’m also a bit shocked that Rachel Blaney was calling on the government to “eliminate” the fossil fuel sector, and if that’s indeed what she meant and that it wasn’t a misspeak (but given that at least one of her colleagues liked the tweet I made about it, the possibility of it being a misspeak diminishes), it seems that the party is prepared to write off their Alberta wing (and possibly their Saskatchewan wing too) for good, so well done there.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Rob Oliphant for a dark blue suit and matching tie with a crisp white shirt, and to Mona Fortier for a blue jacket with a black top and slacks. Style citations go out to Candice Bergen for a fuchsia dress with giant orange and white florals, and worse, flare sleeves, and to Tom Lukiwski for a dark brown jacket with light brown slacks, a butterscotch shirt and a honey-coloured tie.