QP: It’s simple arithmetic

Posted on by

While the PM was away in Quebec, I watched Andrew Scheer walk into West Block fifteen minutes before Question Period, but he decided not to bother showing up. That left Candice Bergen to lead off, and she railed that the carbon price tax rebates were less than intended and she decried the entire government’s environmental agenda. Amarjeet Sohi stood up and recited the happy talking points about the carbon price leaving eight out of ten households better off, as confirmed by the Parliamentary Budget Officer. Bergen scoffed at the response, and Sohi repeated his talking points. Bergen called the carbon price a “greedy tax plan,” and Sohi reiterated the same points yet again but noted that the Conservatives have no plan. Alain Rayes took over in French, and he railed about taxes and deficits, to which David Lametti recited the happy talking points about the strength of the economy and the million jobs created since 2015. Rayes and Lametti then went another round of the same. Jagmeet Singh was up next for the NDP, and in French, he demanded lower cellphone prices — which was the substance of his party’s Supply Day motion — to which Jean-Yves Duclos praised the government’s record at reducing poverty. Singh repeated his question in English, to which Patty Hajdu listed measures they have taken and directives they gave to the CRTC to ensure affordability. Singh listed a number of corporate sins of the Liberals before returning to his demand for cheaper cellphone bills. Diane Lebouthillier stood up to praise her department’s work at stopping tax evasion, getting a dig in at Singh because it was supposed to be the subject of the Supply Day motion and they changed it at the last minute. Singh repeated the question in French, and Hajdu repeated her previous response in French.

Round two, and Richard Martel decried the deficit (O’Connell: You need to stop misleading Canadians about your failed record; Lightbound: The OECD points out that families are on average $2000 better off now than under the Conservatives), Pierre Poilievre returned to the size of the carbon rebates (Fraser: The demographics you’re citing are from families smaller than average, and this is simple arithmetic and not rocket science; O’Connell: Our plan has been focused on Canadians, and the typical family is $2000 better off, and we can run on our record). Karine Trudel and Brian Masse returned to the demand for cheaper cellphone plans (Massé: We have been investing in rural connectivity; Jordan: Our government has taken a number of steps to achieve these goals). Jamie Schmale, John Barlow, and Shannon Stubbs demanded the Trans Mountain pipeline get built (Sohi: If you wanted it to get done, you wouldn’t have voted down our process for consultations). Pierre-Luc Dusseault claimed the NDP had an environment plan that the government should adopt (Fraser: Your heart is in the right place but you don’t think through the consequences of your promises), and Peter Julian yelled about corporate taxes (O’Connell: You voted against our plan to lower taxes for the Middle Class™ and the Canada Child Benefit).

Round three saw questions on Elections Canada’s use of social media “influencers” (Gould: You’re the only party that tries to suppress the vote), supply chain legislation to stop slave labour (Hajdu: We have been consulting with partners to ensure that we can eliminate it), EI as being “sexist” (Duclos: The system is solid and reliable), concern trolling about the Paris targets (Fraser: We will because failure is not an option), the Auditor General’s budget (Murray: You’re reminding Canadians of the fact that you cut his budget, and you voted against our increase to his budget), concerns about proposed changes Hong Kong’s extradition law (Oliphant: We have raised concerns with the government of Hong Kong along with our allies), oversight for CBSA (McCrimmon: We are aware of the situation and there is legislation that we hope you will pass swiftly), the Manitoba-Minnesota transmission line (Sohi: There are outstanding issues caused by Manitoba Hydro’s withdrawal of their agreement with Indigenous communities), taxing web giants (Rodriguez: We established an expert panel to come up with solutions so that we have a system that treats everyone the same), and whether the government is planning to shut down Twitter during the election (Gould: No).

Overall, it would have been great if Amarjeet Sohi could call out falsehood when they come at him, whether it was about the supposed smaller climate rebate cheques than promised (and bravo to Sean Fraser for actually pointing out the misleading statement and the arithmetic behind it during the second round), or when Shannon Stubbs claimed that the government could have asserted jurisdiction to push through the Trans Mountain expansion construction. It was all false, and he didn’t actually say that. I will point out that Karina Gould did call out the outrageously false and egregiously misleading questions Peter Kent as being just that (and for this level of atrocious nonsense to come from Kent, a former journalist, is alarming), but again, it should be alarming to everyone that the Conservatives feel they can lie and spin literal conspiracy theories in the House of Commons, and largely get away with it simply because the majority of Cabinet will simply repeat happy, clappy talking points rather than stand up and say that the questions being asked were false and misleading — especially because of how pervasive it is that this stuff gets clipped and shared across social media platforms. “Sunny ways” shouldn’t mean being a doormat for complete falsehoods. Do better, everyone.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Randy Boissonneault for a tailored blue suit with a white shirt with blue polka dots, a white pocket square and a red tie, and to Alexandra Mendès for a navy dress with grey patterns and shoulder cut-outs. Style citations go out to Mélanie Joly for her black and floral ruffled dress with green trim (see below), and to Jim Eglinski for a dark grey suit with a terra cotta shirt and a black, red and orange patterned tie. 

2 thoughts on “QP: It’s simple arithmetic”

  1. As usual as you report the Liberals just don’t have the stomach to call the tories out on their lies and misinformation. Conservatives have always held this edge. At a riding meeting I asked why MP’s and candidates are so meek and couldn’t get an answer. I guess it is because liberals are more gentile than conservatives or could it be that malfeasance to liberals is a sin or conservatives who count on their christian base are without shame?

  2. The Cons are emboldened to spin their BS because their bought-and-paid-for media shills won’t call them out for it. Too focused on making volcanoes out of molehills and attacking the star candidate over every little thing. Trump Media North.

Comments are closed.