While the prime minister was present, on a day of tough news for Oshawa, Andrew Scheer was absent yet again. Because why bother showing up to Parliament when you’re the leader of the opposition? Erin O’Toole led off, and said there was a future for manufacturing in Canada if they fought for it, and wanted to know what the government was doing. Justin Trudeau read a statement about their disappointment in the news, and how they would support the workers. O’Toole said that they needed to hear that the prime minister hasn’t given up on the sector, to which Trudeau said that they were working with other orders of government to support the workers. O’Toole asked if GM asked him about trade and tariff concerns that were impacting their competitiveness, to which Trudeau said that the auto companies worked with them as part of the new NAFTA talks, and there was more work to do in eliminating steel and aluminium tariffs. Luc Berthold took over in French to ask again about fighting for the jobs, and Trudeau picked his script back up to read the French version of his first answer. Berthold read some further concerns about the workers, and Trudeau read some further assurances about the industry being solid. Guy Caron was up next for the NDP, and he worried that GM was getting “tax giveaways” while cutting jobs, to which Trudeau read a script about support for the auto sector and how they worked to make it globally competitive and innovative. Caron switched to the Canada Post strike and worried that back to work legislation wouldn’t have resulted in the gains the union made, and Trudeau read a script about all of the measures they took to help get a deal. Karen Trudel asked the same question again, and Trudeau extemporaneously explained how they worked respectfully with unions but the time came to make difficult decisions. Irene Mathyssen read that Canada Post was a toxic environment, to which Trudeau read about his faith in the collective bargaining process.

Round two, and Jamie Schmale and Dean Allison worried about the Oshawa plant closure (Bains: I share your sentiments, we are speaking with stakeholders to defend auto workers and the sector), Dan Albas worried that this was on top of previous plant closures (Bains: We put forward measures to build on our innovation plans in the fall economic update), and Pierre Poilievre concern trolled that the carbon tax was making these closures more serious (Bains: We came into government on an agenda of innovation and growth). Trudel got back up to demand that the government modernise the auto sector to keep jobs (Bains, with script: We are disappointed by this, and it’s part of global restructuring), and Scott Duval got up to demand a national auto strategy (Bains: We have been making investments in the sector as part of the strategic innovation fund). Alain Rayes complained the government was trying to score political points on the backs of Franco-Ontariens (Joly: We will take no lessons, and we re-launched the Court Challenges Programme), and Alupa Clarke wondered if the PM raised the issue of Franco-Ontariens with Doug Ford during his call (Trudeau: Yes, I did, unlike the leader of the opposition), and Sylvie Boucher demanded to know if he would meet with the leader of the opposition to work on the issue together (Joly: We are standing up for the rights of Franco-Ontariens. Brigitte Sansoucy and Murray Rankin demanded Pharmacare (Petitpas Taylor: We have an advisory committee on implementation that will report back in 2019).

Round three saw questions on the Mark Norman case (Goodale: This is before the courts and the sun judice rule ensures that we won’t interfere), Raj Grewal’s resignation (Chagger: We hope he’s getting the help he needs), Franco-Ontarien rights (Joly: We will always work with provinces to protect Francophones country-wide), the $500,000 spent to brand a poverty-reduction agency (Khera: We have spoken to the managing director of this agency to express our concerns), Russian attacking Ukrainian ships (Freeland: We strongly condemn this aggression and call on them to release the captured vessels, and we have assured Ukraine of our strong support), details on Russian interference in Canadians elections (Gould: Foreign interference is concerning, and we need to ensure that we’re not politicising this issue), victims of Phyrrotite (Bains: We are partnering with the University of Laval for a study), a Quebec infrastructure project (Champagne: We will look at this project when we get the proposal), not subsidising green energy enough (Fraser: We are investing in public transit and pricing pollution; Champagne: We have invested $30 billion in public transport and the transition to a green economy), and the coming climate conference and Canada doing more (Trudeau, with script: Climate change is real and man-made, which is why we are working hard to meet our 2030 targets and know we have more to do afterward).

Overall, it wasn’t unexpected that there would be the focus on the announced GM plant closure that there was, or the fact that the Conservatives would try to build a narrative around it – something I am quite sure we’ll see far more of in the coming days, particularly after Andrew Scheer’s press release earlier in the day about how the Liberals were somehow giving a picture that the economy that was “too rosy” (erm, you may want to check that – even the Bank of Canada is painting a pretty rosy picture, with the economy running at capacity and nearly full employment), and that the government has “spent the cupboard bare” (again, the deficits are very modest given the size of the economy, and our debt-to-GDP ratio is the healthiest in the G7 and improving all the time). But ooh, carbon taxes and regulations – those will be bogeymen that they will try to capitalise on in the coming days. As well, the aggrieved tone coming from the Conservatives on the Franco-Ontarien rights issue was a bit rich, but they do have a fine line to try and walk when it comes to appeasing their different bases. But that’s politics.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Pablo Rodriguez for a navy three-piece suit with a white shirt and dark blue tie, and to Jody Wilson-Raybould for a black dress with a white jacket. Style citations go out to Karine Trudel for a black skirt and top with bright pink florals, and to Darshan Kang for a brown checked jacket with a grey cardigan, pink shirt and orangeish tie with a red turban.