While Justin Trudeau was off in Toronto to sell his climate rebate plan, Andrew Scheer was back in Ottawa, leading the charge against the idea. And to lead off in QP, he disingenuously suggested that a carbon price would have no effect on the climate (not true), and would only raise costs for families. Dominic LeBlanc responded by touting that they have a plan and the Conservatives did not. Scheer forced a tortured trick-or-treat analogy to insist that large emitters were exempt from the plan — which is a lie — and LeBlanc reiterated his points without correcting the record. They went for another round of the same, and then Scheer reached into his bag of greatest hits to demand the true costs of the climate plan, and LeBlanc hit back that Scheer’s lack of plan wouldn’t be revealed until after the election. Guy Caron was up next for the NDP, and he railed about the concessions in the New NAFTA. Marc Garneau praised the agreement and stated that they were continuing to fight the steel and aluminium tariffs. Caron railed about the exemptions on duties for private couriers but not Canada Post, and Garneau insisted that Canadians were satisfied with the agreement. Alexandre Boulerice heard scorn on the government’s climate targets, and LeBlanc assured him that they were living up to their commitments, and noted the Nobel prize for pricing pollution, which is what the government was doing. Boulerice groused about pipelines, and LeBlanc gave more assurances of their plan.

Scheer falsely says that large industrial emitters are exempt from the plan, which I reiterate is a lie.
And Dominic LeBlanc lets the lie go uncorrected on the record. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) October 23, 2018

Round two, and Ed Fast, Alex Nuttall, and Rosemarie Falk said the Canadians couldn’t trust the government to return the carbon payments (LeBlanc: We made a commitment in 2015, and pricing pollution is the most effective means, and we will reinvest what we receive), and Pierre Poilievre waved the backgrounder around to insist that large industrial emitters are exempt (LeBlanc: That’s not true and large emitters are subject to the price). Peter Julian demanded that the federal government take over funding the Ontario basic income project (Lightbound: We brought in the Canada Child Benefit; Vaughan: We are disappointed they are cancelling it but we have taken our own action). Alain Rayes and Lisa Raitt returned to the James Cudmore/Mark Norman questions (McCrimmon: It would be inappropriate to comment). Hélène Laverdière demanded the LAV contract be suspended to Saudi Arabia (Goldsmith-Jones: We have led the G7 in putting out a response, and we call for a transparent investigation in coordination with Turkish authorities), and Tracey Ramsey decried the number of companies getting exemptions and rebates to the steel and aluminium tariffs (Lametti: We are making up to $2 billion available). 

I see the Conservatives are gathering outrage clips to distribute over social media with. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) October 23, 2018

Every time the NDP name Jagmeet Singh, MPs on all sides erupt say “Who?”
“Enough! We’re not in grade 7,” the Speaker admonishes. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) October 23, 2018

Round three saw more questions on the Mark Norman file (McCrimmon: We can’t comment), ongoing Phoenix problems (Qualtrough: There has been progress and the backlog is declining), funds for a northern Indigenous women’s shelter (Vaughan: The National Housing Plan has a specific carve-out for shelters, and let’s discuss that specific issue privately), the labour shortage in Quebec (Hajdu: We are encouraging Canadians to get the skills they need, and immigration is a part of the solution, so he should talk to his provincial counterparts), mining contamination that have not resulted in charges (Casey: We have faith in the enforcement mechanisms in the department and are monitoring the situation), UNRWA funding (Bibeau: They are doing their work in a transparent manner), Saudi Arabia (Goldsmith-Jones: We are in close contact with our allies), the car company loan write-offs (Alghabra: The former government had no intention of collecting and we attempted to recover the funds), and demanding to improve GHG targets (Fraser: We will met or exceed our Paris targets).

James Bezan is probably glad he’s under parliamentary immunity in his slanderous insinuations. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) October 23, 2018

Overall, I remain utterly boggled that the government continues to let blatant lies go uncorrected on the record, and LeBlanc saying “it’s the complete opposite” is not enough. I kind of get that they may be trying to live by this ethos of “if you’re explaining, you’re losing,” but these are bald-faced lies that are being allowed to stand, unchallenged. How that’s not a problem in their eyes is mystifying, particularly since they’ll be spreading the clips of those lies over social media. As for the return to the Mark Norman questions, the Conservatives tried a new tactic today which was to ask the Speaker to weigh in as to whether or not the questions are out of order, but the Speaker declined to give such a ruling, saying the time to raise points of order was after QP (and I didn’t see them standing up to raise such a point at that time). In other words, they were trying to drag the Speaker into their little games, and he didn’t bite.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Lisa Raitt for a long white jacket over a black dress, and to Joël Lightbound for a tailored navy suit and tie with a white shirt. Style citations go out to Ron Liepert for a medium grey suit with a burnt sienna shirt and a red striped tie, and to Rosemarie Falk for a navy smock top with loud pink florals with a black sweater and slacks.