QP: Condemning Kenney’s threats

Posted on by

Justin Trudeau was present for the first time in almost two weeks today, while Andrew Scheer was again absent. Lisa Raitt led off, worrying about the amendments to Bill C-69 from the Senate, and raising the letter from Jason Kenney and company threatening national unity if they don’t pass. Trudeau stated that they welcome the suggestions from the “independent” Senate, but said that a premier threatening national unity if he doesn’t get his own way needs to be condemned. Raitt said that Trudeau thought he was above the premiers, and Trudeau stated that he meets with premiers unlike Harper, but returned to his condemnation of the threats to national unity. Raitt worried that Trudeau was bringing on a constitutional crisis, and Trudeau reminded her that one of those amendments would make Indigenous consultations optional, which was not the way to move forward. Alain Rayes took over in French, and he demanded respect for premiers. Trudeau reiterated in French that he has worked with premiers, but Conservative premiers who threaten national unity needs to be condemned. Rayes claimed that the PM was attacking premiers at every opportunity, and Trudeau reiterated his response. Jagmeet Singh was up next, and he repeated his demand from yesterday to impose a price cap on cell phone companies, to which Trudeau picked up a script to list measures that the government has taken which means lower bills in regions where there is more competition. Singh repeated the demand in French, and Trudeau read the French version of his script in response. Singh then painted himself as brave enough to stand up to telecom companies, and repeated his demand, to which Trudeau extemporaneously assured him that the government was making investments to improve connectivity, including in rural areas. For his final question, Singh quoted a news story where a Liberal MP’s law firm may have been involved in a money laundering transaction, to which Trudeau read from a script about the task force they set up to deal with money laundering.

https://twitter.com/davidakin/status/1138511571515301888

Round two, and Richard Martel worried about the cost of living before railing about the deficit (Lightbound: Most of the debt came from Conservatives and we have increased growth after a decade of stagnation; O’Connell: Your record was terrible and we won’t follow it), and Pierre Poilievre demanded over several rounds an admission that the Liberals would impose “massive tax increases” after the election (O’Connell: We lowered taxes for the Middle Class™, and we won’t take our marching orders from Doug Ford). Gord Johns railed that the government’s plan to ban single-use plastic was not specific enough (McKenna: We know that we can do better, and we are taking action), and Peter Julian angrily read some condemnation about the Trans Mountain Pipeline (Sohi: Your leader should clarify if he supports the LNG project, and regarding TMX, we are completing our consultations and will have a decision by June 18th). Stephanie Kusie demanded the names of the social media influencers that Elections Canada is hiring (Gould: You cheat in elections and then you get caught), and Jacques Gourde and Mark Strahl railed about third parties advertising against the Conservatives, with Strahl adding a kick at the media bailout panel (Gould: We restored fairness to the systems; Rodriguez: This is just another attack on labour). Karine Trudel and Tracey Ramsey decried the New NAFTA (Freeland: The NDP celebrated the deal behind closed doors but now want us to open up Pandora’s Box; Let me quote Hassan Yussuf of the Canadian Labour Congress).

Round three saw questions on carbon rebates (McKenna: It’s a shame that the premier of Saskatchewan wants to make it free to pollute; You’re saying things that are false, and you don’t care about climate change), some more concern trolling about meeting the Paris targets (McKenna: It’s funny that a member from Quebec is talking down his own province’s plan), a senior who owes back taxes (Tassi: We’ve been working hard to make life easier for seniors), a Liberal MP’s law firm possibly being involved in a money laundering case (Blair: Here are some measures we have taken to combat money laundering; You cut money from the law enforcement agencies who were combatting this), the Trans Mountain expansion (Sohi: The Conservative process led to court challenges), the Phoenix pay system (MacKinnon: The Conservatives made false savings trying to balance the books on this, but we are working to reduce the backlog to zero), Mark Norman still not being back on the job (Sajjan: General Vance is the Chief of Defence Staff, and it’s his call), Supply Management compensation (Freeland: We protected Supply Management and farmers will get compensated fairly), and Nutrition North (Bennett: We expanded the programme, but we know that more needs to be done, and are working to community-led solutions).

Overall, it was a loud and disruptive day, and you could tell the Speaker’s patience was running very thin. It was heartening to see Justin Trudeau take a strong stand about the threats to national unity from Jason Kenney, and to do so without relying on a script or a prepared talking point — which was one of the only times during the whole exercise today that a talking point wasn’t relied upon. The only other thing of note for the day were the questions related to Liberal MP Joe Peschisolido’s law firm being involved in a potential money laundering transaction, based on a Global news story that, when you read it, was interesting but the hook about Peschisolido was tenuous at best. Nevertheless, the Conservatives started immediately drumming up conspiracy theories, demanding to know if he had been lobbying Cabinet about bare trusts and the like (Peschisolido scrummed after QP, stated that he had no knowledge of the file as the firm were all independent contractors and he had never dealt with a bare trust before). That Peter Kent in particular, a former journalist, is now standing up daily in QP to spin elaborate conspiracy theory is shocking, and someone should have a talk with him about it.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Lisa Raitt for a dark blue dress under a long white jacket, and to Frank Baylis for a dark grey suit with a light purple shirt with a darker purple tie and pocket square. Style citations go out to Blaine Calkins for a black jacket with khaki slacks, a light grey shirt and a lavender paisley tie, and to Kirsty Duncan for a black and floral jacket with a black top and slacks. Dishonourable mention goes out to Iqra Khalid for a bright yellow jacket over a black top and slacks.

Programming Note: I will be away for the rest of the week, as I’m presenting at the Institute for the Study of the Canadian Crown conference at Massey College – and it’ll the first time I’ve missed QP in about five years.

Want more Routine Proceedings? Become a patron and get exclusive new content.

3 thoughts on “QP: Condemning Kenney’s threats”

  1. Sounds to me like a “Kudatah” is in the works. Glad to see Justin’s starting to channel his papa in dealing with this craven nutcase. Give ’em hell, Justin. I just hope it’s not too late.

  2. Justin is just ramping up. Scheer’s coterie will be gutted on the campaign trail. No policy, no imagination, no concern for Canada and Canadians and the legacy of Harper.

  3. The Liberals banned clapping? I hope your tweet means it’s lifted.

    Trudeau is great when he’s mad. You can tell even in clips he wasn’t reading notes. And it was well-deserved.

Comments are closed.