QP: Rigging a dangerous game

Justin Trudeau was away for Monday, but Andrew Scheer was present. Before things got underway, Elizabeth May led her new MP, Paul Manly, into the Chamber in order to take his seat. Scheer led off, demanding to know why Unifor was on the panel to help determine who gets funding for the media bailout and called it the Liberals stacking of the deck. Pablo Rodriguez said that Scheer was playing a dangerous game, and that any suggestion that journalists could be bought was insulting while the government was supporting the industry as a number of daily newspapers had closed in recent years. Scheer tried again, and got the same response, and then Scheer railed that government had not limited their own spending on ads in advance of an election, to which Karina Gould read a statement about how the government has focused their advertising and cut it in half. Steven Blaney stood up to repeat the question on Unifor being on the panel in French, and Rodriguez gave him much the same response, and they went another round of the same. Jagmeet Singh was up next for the NDP, and he demanded the government adopt their Pharmacare plan, to which Ginette Petitpas Taylor insisted that she listens to all sides and they have a national plan in the works while they have taken other measures. Singh tried again in French, got much the same response, before Singh lauded US Democrats’ attempts to change the New NAFTA, to which Chrystia Freeland insisted that they held out for a good deal. Singh tried again in English, and Freeland urged Singh to talk to some actual Canadian workers. 

Round two, and Phil McColeman, Erin O’Toole, and Richard Martel railed about the closed-door ceremony for the Afghanistan memorial (Sajjan: The Chief of Defence Staff has written to the families and we are making arrangements for them), Alupa Clarke asked about media allegations around veterans not being invited to a military commemoration (Lauzon: The list has not been finalised), O’Toole got back up to demand a date for a national Afghan mission memorial (Lauzon: The site the Conservatives chose was not accessible and we are getting it done right). Tracey Ramsey repeated the praise for American Democrats vis-à-vis the New NAFTA (Freeland: Here’s what your old boss Jerry Dias said about the deal), and the language of the steel and aluminium tariff agreement (Freeland: Let me take this opportunity to again remind everyone that those tariffs were lifted). Pierre Paul-Hus, Bob Saroya and Glen Motz railed about Mexican and Central American cartel members coming into Canada (Goodale: Those media figures can’t be verified and we check everyone who comes in the country). Brigitte Sansoucy and Ruth Ellen Brosseau worried about Supply Management under the New NAFTA (Freeland: Remember when your party members praised the agreement behind closed doors?)

Round three saw questions on Unifor being part of the media bailout panel (Gould: This is a dangerous game to play, and you are undermining our democratic institutions; Rodriguez: This is a direct attack on our countries’ journalists; The industry is in crisis and we want to support them), access to Tibet (Freeland: Human rights need to be part of our foreign policy, and I have been particularly concerned about the treatment of the Uighurs in China), carbon pricing (Fraser: GHG pricing is an essential aspect of the global fight against emissions), a “soda tax” (Petitpas Taylor: We’ve moved forward with our healthy eating strategy, banning trans fats and restricting advertising to kids), the gay blood donation ban (Petitpas Taylor: We reduced the wait period to three months and are working to get it to zero), the canola issue (Bibeau: We have been on this case), the ghost of Energy East (Lefebvre: We ensure proper consultations), and affordable housing (Duclos: We have a national housing strategy).

Overall, it was a fairly standard day, but once again where there was an issue involving journalists, the Conservatives were being cheeky about insulting the journalists in the gallery and then looking up at us for our reactions to how “clever” they were being — particularly when Peter Kent called on us to give them a thumbs up or down as to the government’s “bailout” plan. (I was tempted to start rubbing my eye with my middle finger, but refrained). It’s not clever, guys. (Also, don’t take this as an endorsement of Pablo Rodriguez’s attempts at communications around this issue, because he hasn’t helped his case at all). Meanwhile, I do find the NDP’s constant attempts to become a branch plant of the American Democrats to be interesting and a bit unusual given that the Democrats tend to be far more to the right of the NDP, one or two “luminary” figures aside, but in their flailing it seems like they are trying to grab onto anything that they think will give them some traction, but I’m not sure it working, or really the right tactic.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Linda Lapointe for a black dress with white dots and a white jacket, and to Raj Grewal for a dark grey suit with a light blue shirt, and a navy turban, tie and pocket square. Style citations go out to Arif Virani for a tan jacket with a light blue shirt and a navy tie and pocket square, and to Brenda Shanahan for a pale blue sweater over a peach-pink collared shirt and black slacks. Dishonourable mention goes out to Mélanie Joly for a black jacket and slacks with a black and yellow striped top.