The first Monday of the new Parliament, and the prime minister was present but Andrew Scheer was not. That left Leona Alleslev to lead off in French, and she lamented the reported job losses from last month, and demanded a new economic statement with new measures and a balanced budget. Justin Trudeau responded that the first thing they did in 2015 was cut taxes and they were doing so again, and they were supporting Canadians and the economy. Alleslev read the same question in English, and got the same response. Alleslev read more doom, saying that the country was on the verge of recession (reminder: Not according to the Bank of Canada), and Trudeau reminded her of the plan to invest in Canadians, which is what they would continue to do. Erin O’Toole was up next, demanding retaliation against China for the two detained Canadians, being the one-year anniversary of their captivity. Trudeau assured the House that they were continuing to engage the Chinese, and that he had spoken to President Xi directly. O’Toole then raised the protests in Hong Kong, and Trudeau spoke about their support for the one-country two-systems principles and reiterated their calls for de-escalation. Yves-François Blanchet asked about healthcare, and Trudeau responded in general platitudes about the system, and they went for a second round of the same. Jagmeet Singh was up next, and in his new style of alternate French and English sentences, demanded that the upcoming tax cut be more targeted in order to use the savings to pay for national dental care, and Trudeau reminded him of how many people the tax cut would help. Singh demanded increased health transfers, to which Trudeau reminded him that they had worked with the provinces to target specific needs in the last parliament and they would continue to do so in this one.
Round two, and Candice Bergen railed that the former Bill C-69 (Freeland: We take the economic challenges of the prairies seriously, and here is a quote from Kenney), as well as demanding a new softwood lumber deal (O’Regan: Here are a bunch of measures we have taken), Alain Rayes demanded specific responses to the demands of the Quebec government (Rodriguez: We have been working with Quebec) and the Quebec City transit project (Rodriguez: Same answer), Scot Davidson demanded a restoration of the Lake Simcoe clean-up fund (Wilkinson: We have unprecedented investments in waterways), and Patzer demanded a plan for canola farmers (Bibeau: We are working very hard to reopen the market in China and have enriched some programmes). Luc Thériault demanded increased health transfers (Hajdu, with script and bad French: We have been making significant investments to keep the system strong), and Gabriel Ste-Marie called on the government to respect Quebec’s demands (Rodriguez: I already said we were working with the province). Glen Motz, Steven Blaney and Tamara Jansen demanded the government ban Huawei (Blair: The decision on their participation in 5G is well underway). Heather McPherson demanded new measures to diversify Alberta’s economy and create jobs (Joly: We have invested more than half a billion dollars in Western Economic Diversification and I look forward to working with you), and Alexandre Boulerice demanded the government start taxing web giants (Guilbeault: We have been engaging on this issue).
https://twitter.com/AaronWherry/status/1204123462295605248
Round three saw questions on the hot mic tape (Freeland: We have an excellent working relationship with our allies), LNG as a means of reducing emissions (Wilkinson: The focus on the discussion on Article 6 are about establishing a framework and to ensure there is no double-counting so reductions are real), banning the rifle used at Polytechnique (Blair: We will have more to say on these next steps in the very near future), the old Bill C-69 (Wilkinson: The legislation is far superior to the one it replaced), the supposed “anti-Israel” motion at the UN (Gould: Canada is one of Israel’s strongest friends at the UN, and we have called on the international community to get both sides to resume negotiations for a lasting solution), the Grassy Narrows mercury treatment centre (Miller: I met with the chief last week, and funding is not an obstacle, and I will have an update for this House shortly), demanding more tax cuts for small business (Morneau: We did cut them on small businesses and are cutting them now for Middle Class™ Canadians), sawmill shutdowns in BC (O’Regan: I met with the BC Minister of forestry last week, and are supporting investments in diversification and innovation, and using the Green Municipal Fund for flood mitigation (McKenna: We need to support efforts to keep the residents of Fredericton safe).
Overall, it was kind of amazing how quickly a feeling of same-old, same-old starts to descend on the place, as bad habits are quickly returned to, such as the stilted reading of scripted talking points, having three MPs ask the same question so that you can get enough clips for your social media platforms, asking the same question twice in a row despite getting a substantive answer to the question you posted (and kudos to Jonathan Wilkinson for actually providing a proper answer to the LNG/Article 6 questions rather than just reciting a pre-approved talking point), and the performative indignation that won’t get you anywhere. Much the same as it ever was. I am curious how things will change if the Liberals get their way and eliminate the speaking lists as they promised (but as I wrote at the time it was proposed, so long as they still allow scripts, it would only be a half-measure that would be of limited effect).
Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Candice Bergen for a black short-sleeved dress, and to Eric Melillo for a tailored medium grey suit with a light blue shirt and dark blue tie. Style citations go out to Patty Hajdu for a black wrap dress with red roses, and to Martin Shields for a black suit with a pale green shirt and a candy-cane striped red and white tie. Dishonourable mentions go out to Deb Schulte for a bright yellow jacket with a black top and slacks.