QP: O’Toole with the follow-up

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Wednesday, proto-Prime Minsters Questions Day, and all of the leaders were present. Erin O’Toole led off, with his script on the mini-lectern in front of him, and not only declared that Canada would not get vaccines until other countries do, and demanded the “real” vaccine plan. Justin Trudeau assured him that Canada has one of the most robust vaccine plans in the world. O’Toole was not mollified, and again demanded the plan, to which Trudeau gave some bland platitudes before he said they had a numerous plans for distribution in the works. O’Toole complained he wasn’t getting a real answer, wondered about American “emergency” approvals for drugs, and accused the government of not having a plan. Trudeau gave a weary sigh and noted that people don’t care about what they hear in QP, but that they wanted the government to get stuff done, and they were. O’Toole switched to French to complain that the government was been mean to Quebeckers by not applying the province’s Bill 101 to federal workplaces, and Trudeau assured him that they were committed to protecting the French language in Quebec. O’Toole then mischaracterised comments by MP Emmanuella Lambropoulos as being “contemptuous” of Quebeckers, and Trudeau assured him that she had apologised for the her remarks. Yves-François Blanchet picked up on this line and decried the decline of French, and Trudeau repeated that they respect French and were working to strengthen it. Blanchet ratcheted up his rhetoric for his follow-up, and Trudeau wondered why the Bloc was trying to start a fight over something the government agrees with. Jagmeet Singh was up next, and in French, he accused the government of doing less in the second wave than they did in the first to which Trudeau listed measures that they have taken to assist the provinces. Singh then switched to English to repeat the accusations, and Trudeau repeated his response. 

Round two, and Candice Bergen demanded the government support the Keystone XL pipeline (Trudeau: I have supported this project since before I was prime minister and I raised this with Joe Biden in my first call with him; You don’t understand that a plan for the environment gets these projects built), Erin O’Toole got back up to demand the same thing (Trudeau: To protect jobs, you need to fight climate change), Richard Martel raised a vexatious litigant’s lawsuit as proof about the problems with the judicial appointment system (Trudeau: We have an independent process that reflects the diversity of the country), Erin O’Toole raised the same (Trudeau: Same answer). Blanchet was back up to return to his laments about Bill 101 in Quebec (Trudeau: We restored the Court Challenges Programme, and we support Bill 101 in what it achieves for Quebec). Michelle Rempel Garner quoted the American Dr. Anthony Fauci in her demand for at-home COVID tests (Trudeau: We sent $25 million to the provinces to bolster their testing; It’s not my job to approve tests, it’s the job of independent public servants), and Erin O’Toole worried about the arrogance of the prime minister (Trudeau: The level of political attacks you are tossing out is irresponsible). Don Davies complained that Alberta leaked vaccine distribution plans (Trudeau: We have the strongest portfolio of potential vaccines of any peer countries, and distribution is going to be a significant challenge but we will be there for Canadians), and Rachel Blaney gave an example of racism faced by an Inuit woman in healthcare (Trudeau: We are committed to fighting against systemic racism and have committed to a distinctions-based health system).

Round three saw demands for changes to the medical assistance in dying bill (Trudeau: We worked hard to strike a balance), trade with the UK (Trudeau: We have been working for years to ensure a seamless post-Brexit transition and we hope to get an agreement very soon), untendered contracts given through the pandemic (Trudeau: We’ve helped Canadian businesses to step up and help out when they want to produce PPE, and we no longer have a PPE crisis), Lambropoulos’ comments (Trudeau: We won’t take any lectures from your party, which has always attacked French in Canada), demanding a national suicide prevention hotline (Trudeau, with script: Canadians deserve access to help when they need it, and we are working with partners including on a consolidated suicide prevention hotline), women and minorities being harder hit by the pandemic (Trudeau: We are working to help them and are always open to hearing how we can do more).

Overall, there was a very weird dynamic going on where Erin O’Toole would get up and ask follow-ups after each of his MPs asked their question, which smacks of him trying to get clips of him sounding tough on as many issues as possible for his social media channels, as opposed to just the couple of topics in the leaders’ round. It was obviously scripted – no, seriously, he had scripts for all of those follow-ups – so it’s not like he was just riffing off of what Trudeau said, which is about par for the course. The sheer volume of questions on the supposed decline of French (which doesn’t seem to actually have a lot of empirical evidence) and the demands that the federal government extend Quebec’s Bill 101 to federally-regulated workplaces was odd (and a bit ahistorical for the Conservatives to make this demand). Unsurprising was how they characterised Emmanuella Lambropoulos’ comments – they were dubious, but certainly not “contemptuous” as was insinuated, because lying about something is now how things operate. But probably the most odd thing of all was that Justin Trudeau kept pivoting to demanding that the Conservatives commit to only appointing bilingual judges to the Supreme Court of Canada like he did. It didn’t make any sense, but I suppose when you’re all actually on board with the same notion that French is “declining” and you are all committed to defending it, you try and reach to find points of difference.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Justin Trudeau for a tailored black suit and matching tie with a crisp white shirt, and to Julie Dzerowicz for a dark blue leather jacket with a black top and slacks. Style citations go out to Claude DeBellefeuille for a black sleeveless tunic with patterns of urns across it, worn over a long-sleeved tan shirt and black slacks, and to Yves Robillard for a taupe suit with a butterscotch shirt and a cream tie. 

3 thoughts on “QP: O’Toole with the follow-up”

  1. “Pardon my French”, but when the fuddle-duddle is anyone going to demand that O’Toole answer for why he and his ministers are on the hate site Parler, and pushing QAnon conspiracy theories about the Great Reset? Have you seen who’s backing Parler? This is a national security issue! As though Jagmeet being on Tik Tok wasn’t bad enough, the Canadian Conservatives are joining the GOP in “sh#tposting” for a Mercer-backed Russian psy-op. Where’s the months-long multi-committee inquiry into this???

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  3. O’Toole needs to remind Michelle Rempel Garner that just because she can ask stupid questions of the Prime Minister, she’s not required to. It’s not actually her job to make Justin Trudeau look good.

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