While the prime minister and his deputy were around the building, neither were present for QP. In their absence, Erin O’Toole led off, script on his mini-lectern, and citing leaked military documents demanded to know how many people would be vaccinated by the end of March. Patty Hajdu shrugged off the question and praised the vaccine portfolio. O’Toole then made the lame joke that if the American plan was “warp speed,” the best Canada could do was impulse power, but Hajdu reiterated her response. O’Toole worried that the US or France would get back to normal six months before Canada does, to which Hajdu talked about the importance of having different vaccine options because some candidates could be more suited to certain populations over others. O’Toole changed to French to demand the plan, for which Hajdu pointed to what was revealed at this mornings tech briefing. O’Toole then pivoted to the myth of the “decline of French,” and demanded that Quebec’s Bill 101 be extended to federal workplaces, to which Mélanie Joly listed actions her government has taken. Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and he too demanded the extension of Bill 101, and Joly reiterated that they believe in Bill 101 for its provincial goals and that they are in discussion with the Quebec government. Therrien was unimpressed and listed all of the people making this demand, and Joly insisted that they have demonstrated that they were allies of Francophones. Jagmeet Singh was up next for the NDP, and in French, he spouted some utter nonsense about the government not procuring enough vaccines, to which Hajdu reminded him that they have more than enough doses, and that prioritisation was established nationally and that provinces would refine it further. Singh repeated his accusations in English, and got the same response.

Today’s @the_lineca column gives a pretty good challenge to the current hysteria gripping the House of Commons about the supposed “decline of French” in Montreal. https://t.co/zZmycDp26J

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) December 3, 2020

Round two, and James Bezan returned to those “leaked documents” to accuse the government not calling in the military until the last minute (Hajdu: Major-General Fortin pointed to the integration of the military in the Public Health Agency for months), Pierre Paul-Hus tried to pick apart the designated priority groups for vaccines (Hajdu: They held a dry run yesterday to ensure that they filled gaps), and Michelle Rempel Garner took umbrage with a public health official telling people not to obsessed with dates for vaccines (Hajdu: We have confidence in our officials). Gabriel Ste-Marie demanded increased health transfers (Rodriguez: We are collaborating with the provinces, and there is an upcoming first ministers’ meeting; Hajdu: We transferred $24 billion to provinces since the pandemic began). Gérard Deltell and Luc Berthold returned to the hysteria over the mythical decline of French (Joly: When you guys were in power, you didn’t care about French; Rodriguez: I’d like to congratulate the Conservatives on their new-found respect for French). Niki Ashton raised the dire COVID situation in a northern First Nation (Miller: I am speaking to the Chief later today, and a rapid response team has been deployed), and Heather McPherson raised the situation of field hospitals being requested in Alberta and demanded the federal government “show leadership” (Hajdu: I have been in touch with my provincial counterpart to offer more supports).

Heather McPherson seems to think that the federal government can swoop in and override the Kenney government.
They can’t. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) December 3, 2020

Round three saw questions on the resignation of the deputy minister of finance (Fraser: You should apologise for your distasteful statements about the help we are providing), unemployment of an energy company’s woes (Tassi: Here are measures we have taken for workers and families), the vaccine roll-out (Hajdu: We have the best vaccine portfolio; Rodriguez: When the vaccines are ready, we will be ready; vaccines are rolled out by provinces; Fisher: Our plan will ensure Canadians are safe), support for the energy sector (O’Regan: Let me remind you of how many jobs we saved with our programmes), opioid deaths (Fisher: We have invested $425 million in emergency responses), and icebreaker contract (MacKinnon: We have a great partnership with shipyards including Davie, and are negotiating), rapid testing — which provinces are sitting on (Fisher: I reject the premise of your question, as we have delivered to provinces), climate action (Schiefke: We will announce a new plan before the next COP summit), and gender-based violence (Monsef: Our progress has happened because of the work of a generation of activists).

Pierre Poilievre proposes that the DM of finance resigned because he is “terrified” of the government’s spending. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) December 3, 2020

Overall, it was a fairly usual day for the current state of things, and once again the Conservatives have been using snippets of information to build a false construction around the state of the pandemic, with today’s being about when the military was brought in for any support necessary for the vaccine roll-out. It has been on the public record for ages now that they have been working with the Public Health Agency, but now they are trying to position this as the military only being brought in at the “last minute” to supposedly cover up for their lapses, which just doesn’t follow at all. But we know this doesn’t matter – it’s about putting forward a false narrative so that people who don’t follow matters will hear it in the clips they post to their social media and think that this is reality when it’s not. This tactic of misinformation is relentless, and this government does the barest minimum to push back against it. Otherwise, there was little of actual note that happened, other than the fact that the NDP’s sole Alberta MP again continues to demand that the federal government do something about the situation in the province given that Jason Kenney isn’t, but there is very little that the federal government can actually do, as they have very limited levers and are not looking to give Kenney an excuse to create a constitutional crisis over this. Also unusual was the fact that Patty Hajdu ducked out mid-way through the third round and let her incompetent parliamentary secretary take over (even though there was a vote directly after QP), for what that’s worth.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Adam Van Koeverden for a navy jacket with a white shirt, lithe blue pocket square and pink bow-tie, and to Catherine McKenna for an oatmeal-coloured swearer over a white v-necked top and black slacks. Style citations go out to Jag Sahota for a dark green blouse with a tan leather skirt, and to Gabriel Ste-Marie for a baggy black suit with a white shirt with orange and blue stripes and a black bow-tie.