QP: Which plan should we adopt?

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A rainy Tuesday, and all the the leaders were present for a change, the only time this week that Trudeau would be, given that he takes off for Paris later tonight. Andrew Scheer led off, mini-lectern on desk, and he was snide about Trudeau having plenty of time to rehearse his script on the Mark Norman case — while his own script was in front of him — and Trudeau reminded him that they were doing due diligence on a Conservative sole-source contract before he went on to talk about the independence of the investigation and decisions taken, and that PMO had responded to all document requests. Scheer took exception to this, describing efforts to avoid Access to Information laws that predate this government, and Trudeau noted that the decision to suspend Norman came from the Chief of Defence Staff, and repeated that they responded to document requests. Scheer tried in French, got the French version of Trudeau’s first response, and then demanded that Trudeau allow the defence committee to probe the issue. Trudeau reminded him that committees are independent of government, and that the Conservatives were desperate to talk about anything but the budget. Scheer then raised the fact that Omar Khadr got $10 million — BECAUSE HE WAS TORTURED — and demanded some kind of restitution for Norman, and Trudeau called the question a distasteful political game. Jagmeet Singh was up next and demanded in French that the government adopt their climate plan, and Trudeau asked which plan in return, given that the NDP plan changes on a weekly basis, and they wanted to shut down the largest project in Canadian history. Singh tried again in English, and Trudeau hit back that Scheer was capriciously looking to end ten thousand jobs on the LNG project after saying that they would leave no worker left behind. Singh then tried to take on the Mark Norman questions, but was halting and unsure in his pacing, and Trudeau called out that Singh was jumping on the Conservative bandwagon because they were floundering. Singh tried again in French, and Trudeau shrugged it off and went back to batting back the NDP’s environmental claims.

Round two and James Bezan and Pierre Paul-Hus accused the government of withholding documents key to Norman’s charges begin shelved (Lametti: We fulfilled all document requests; Cormier: Same in French), and Lisa Raitt disputed that the government turned over all documents (Lametti: My department’s only involvement was to supply documents as requested, and to process the documents from seven other departments, and it was up to the court to determine if redactions were appropriate). Charlie Angus tried to make his own hyperbolic Norman case accusations (Lametti: Same answer). Alain Rayes accused the government of disrespecting the government of Quebec (Champagne: We are proud to invest in this laundry list of projects in Quebec), Shannon Stubbs demanded the Trans Mountain expansion be built (Sohi: We have been working hard to fix the broken process put in place by your government after the Federal Court decision, and should have a decision by June 18th), and Rosemarie Falk raised the federal carbon price (McKenna: When are you going to do something about severe climate change?). Anne Quach and Rachel Blaney worried about oil and gas subsidies (McKenna: We recognise that there is a climate emergency and neither of the opposition parties have a serious plan like we do).

Round three saw questions on the deficit (Morneau: Let me take this opportunity to burnish our record), carbon prices (McKenna: You guys are lying about the rebates), whether the military would help flood clean-up including removing sandbags (Cormier: The Canadian Armed Forces will help where asked), high-speed trains (Garneau: We are working on this and we’ll let you know when there is news), the Trans Mountain pipeline (Sohi: If you were serious about this project, you wouldn’t have voted to shut down the consultation process), Tori Stafford’s killer (Goodale: It’s not clear what any court proceeding might be, and even the judge’s comment in the media stated that he wasn’t clear), demanding a national cycling strategy (Garneau: This is an important point, and we published a report last year that gave 57 measures and we are undertaking pilot projects for what we can do in federal jurisdiction), demanding a new naval supply ship vis-à-vis Mark Norman (Cormier: We will follow the advice of National Defence, who said they are satisfied with what we are doing), transferring infrastructure money to Quebec unconditionally (Champagne: We are are working with complete respect for provincial jurisdiction), separating the office of Minister of Justice and Attorney General (Lametti: We have asked Anne McLellan for this matter and to give us her recommendations).

Overall, it was a little low-energy today, and even some of the rhetoric was a little less overheated than in previous days, but that didn’t mean that there wasn’t a little shade being thrown, particularly by Trudeau in his dismantling of Jagmeet Singh’s questions, but the award for that was won by Erin Weir for his taking note that the NDP leader was suddenly concerned about due process after the Mark Norman case. Otherwise, the Conservatives’ attempt to point out federal-provincial disagreements and pour a little gasoline on and embers was laid bare with their questions on Quebec infrastructure funding, but François-Philippe Champagne was having none of it. Of course, the Conservatives’ attempt to burnish their government’s record on intergovernmental relations is a bit rich, but what can you do?

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Michel Picard for a black three-piece suit with a crisp white shirt and a purple tie and pink pocket square, and to Alexandra Medès for a black dress with a long light grey jacket. Style citations go out to Bardish Chagger for a black dress with florals and a dusky rose boxy jacket with three-quarter length sleeves, and Mark Holland for a linen jacket with blue checked shirt, black slacks, and a navy tie. Dishonourable mention goes out to Anne Quach for a white top and black slacks with a mustard yellow jacket.