QP: Whacking and managing

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Monday on the Hill, and the prime minister was present, but Andrew Scheer was not. Candice Bergen led off, and she demanded to know why Adam Vaughan was not fired from his parliamentary secretary role for his tweet about “whacking” premier Ford. Justin Trudeau said he would get to the question in a minute, but wanted to first pay tribute to the late Auditor General, Michael Ferguson. Bergen said that there would be time for that during ministerial statements, then reiterated the question. Trudeau said that Vaughan had apologised and they were endeavouring to keep debate civil. Bergen tried again, and got the same response. Gérard Deltell was up next to offer his usual questions about the deficit, and Trudeau dutifully recited his memorised talking points about investing in the Middle Class™ over Conservative cuts. Deltell tried again, and Trudeau reminded him they cut taxes. Guy Caron was up next for the NDP, and he demanded to know why oil and gas subsidies were not yet cut, and then railed about the Trans Mountain pipeline, repeating the misreading of the PBO report. Trudeau noted that they were honouring their commitment to cut those subsidies by 2025, and they were balancing the economy and the environment. Caron railed that the government wasn’t doing enough, and Trudeau rattled off the government’s many environmental measures. Murray Rankin took over in English to make the same environmental demand, and Trudeau reiterated his responses in English. Rankin tried again, and Trudeau lectured him that it was irresponsible not to get a proper price for oil while they needed to make investments in renewables. 

Round two, and Ed Fast, Rosemarie Falk, Matt Jeneroux, and Pierre Poilievre concern trolled about carbon taxes and lied about there being government documents that “proved” they planned to raise it to $300/tonne (Fraser: You are putting forward figures with no basis in reality, and your strategy appears to be misleading Canadians in order to avoid taking action; Morneau: We reduced taxes in 2016 and increased the Canada Child Benefit). Daniel Blaikie worried about SNC-Lavalin still getting federal contracts (MacKinnon: They support hundreds of thousands of jobs, and why are you talking down Canadian jobs? We have a robust ethical regime), and Pierre-Luc Dusseault worried about ongoing tax evasion (Lebouthillier: We have made this a priority, and are currently investigating some 50 cases). Tom Kmiec and Joël Godin worries the government was going to raise taxes (Morneau: Your government left an extra $150 billion in debt, and we lowered taxes for the Middle Class™), while Dean Allison demanded that steel and aluminium tariffs be lifted — as though he could do anything about it (Leslie: We proposed counter-tariffs to retaliate, while you guys just want to surrender). Irene Mathyssen demanded action on saving the GM Oshawa plant (Bains: We are standing up for the auto sector, and are still seeing new investments), and Brigitte Sansoucy railed that infrastructure spending was too slow (Mendicino: We have been making investments to grow our economy).

Round three saw questions on Bill C-69 (Sohi: The current system isn’t working, and this will give more certainty for major projects), the cost of irregular migrants (Schiefke: Our priority is the safety of Canadians, and we work closely with the RCMP and CBSA to deal with these migrants), parental sponsorship glitches (Hussen: We cut the backlog, quadrupled the cap, and cut down processing time), lapsed spending at veterans affairs (Wilson-Raybould: Our benefits are demand-driven, and the amounts are based on estimates), a single tax form for Quebec (Lebouthillier: We are building a new tax centre in Shawinigan because it’s important to invest in high-quality jobs in rural Quebec), an issue at the Sunshine ski resort (Joly: We believe in tourism and not cuts), taxing Netflix (Rodriguez: We are consulting), Davie shipyards (MacKinnon: We have been clear about our naval shipbuilding strategy, and why didn’t you stand up for them when you were in government and kept them out of the process?), spending Quebec taxes for Quebeckers (Morneau: Our approach is working and our economy is working), replacing Greyhound (Garneau: We are there on a cost-sharing basis if provinces propose to replace routes).

Overall, it was another fairly meh day, but not a complete replay of last week. The Conservatives tested out a new talking point that the prime minister stated that he didn’t even control his own family fortune, and wasn’t that just some kind of affront to regular Canadians (the logic being that he’s just *so rich* that he doesn’t worry about his fortune), all of which is utterly absurd and ridiculous. Trudeau doesn’t control his family fortune because of ethics rules, and that “fortune” is really very modest – it was some $1.2 million when he became Liberal leader and then divested his holdings into a blind trust, which netted him some $20,000 per year – nice enough to supplement one’s income, but certainly not enough for someone to live a lavish lifestyle on and not have to worry about money. In other words, this talking point they have been drumming into people on a daily basis is pure bullshit – surprise, surprise. Meanwhile, the NDP didn’t ask a single question about housing today, unlike last week, which was odd given that they have been trying to make this a focus while the Burnaby South by-election is ongoing.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Pablo Rodriguez for a navy three-piece suit with a light blue shirt and a burgundy tie, and to Candice Bergen for a black short-sleeved dress. Style citations go out to Kamal Khera for a navy dress with huge red rose florals, and to Robert Sopuck for his hateful brown corduroy jacket with a grey-brown waistcoat, light blue shirt and a grey-brown tie.

One thought on “QP: Whacking and managing”

  1. Tories drum falsehoods into the voters on a daily basis. There should be a day of sanction by the speaker. His staff could bring evidence of the lies and he could attribute them to the MP’s at fault. Then kick the offender out for a day or two. Naive I know but it is a pandemic of lies in QP.

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