QP: Eight questions to get an answer

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While the prime minister was meeting with the premiers over Zoom to hear their demands for more health transfers, his deputy was in the Chamber for QP. Erin O’Toole led off, script on his mini-lectern, and he demanded to know why the deputy prime minister pushed for a military training exercise with China, to which Chrystia Freeland read a statement about the two stolen years of the two Michaels, who remain in Chinese detention. O’Toole was not mollified, to which Freeland very slowly and measuredly stated that she has experience reporting on authoritarian regimes, and their priority is the release of the two Michaels. O’Toole raised CanSino before he continued to thunder about the joint training exercise, but Freeland stuck to the CanSino point and chided that O’Toole was worked up about vaccines because he has spent weeks trying to create a panic when he should focus on the anti-vaxxers in his own party. O’Toole tried again about the military exercise, and Freeland stuck to repeating about demanding that the Chinese government release the two Michaels. O’Toole gave it one more shot in French, and she repeated that they take authoritarian regimes seriously. Mario Beaulieu led off for the Bloc, and he once again demanded that Quebec’s Bill 101 to federally-regulated industries, and Freeland calmly stated that the government is aware of the “fragility” of the French language in Quebec and Montreal and they will be happy to work on the protection of French. Beaulieu tried again and for the same answer. Jagmeet Singh was up next for the NDP, and in French, he demanded increased health transfers for the provinces, to which Freeland reminded him that they had transferred billions to the provinces. Singh switched to English to decry the CRA’s letters to the self-employed around the CERB, and Freeland stated that the letters are only about verification, not a demand for repayment.

Round two, and Michael Chong returns to the issue of the Canadian Army and a joint training exercise with China because two departments were at cross-purposes (Champagne: Today is not a day for politics, because we are thinking of the two Michaels), and James Bezan tried again (Sajjan: We don’t train with China, and your government signed the agreement with China, and you were the parliamentary secretary at the time; We changed our approach because of the agreement you signed), and Gerard Deltell demanded health transfers for the provinces without strings attached (Hajdu: We have transferred billions to the provinces already). Monique Pauzé and Kristina Michaud worried that Quebec would still face a carbon tax (Schiefke: We are taking climate change seriously and it’s great that Quebec is a leader). Pierre Poilievre worried about the corporations who gave dividends after getting the wage subsidy (Freeland: Let me be clear, the wage subsidy can only be used for employee remuneration; The wage subsidy does have an accountability clause; The Conservatives are descending into dystopian conspiracy theories because they don’t actually know what they stand for). Leah Gazan demanded housing projects (Hussen: We have been investing), and Gord Johns demanded help for a business in his riding (Freeland: Give my office a call and we will see what we can do).

Round three saw questions on health transfers (Hajdu: The best way to help healthy workers is to stop the spread of the virus), distilleries making disinfectant while foreign companies got government procurement contracts (Anand: We supported over 1000 companies who pivoted to produce PPE and hand-sanitizer), icebreaker contracts (Anand: Yay vaccines, but on this question, no decision has been made), Huawei (Amos: We will protect our networks and we take national security advice), cyber-security (Blair: We invested more in the RCMP’s cyber-crime unit), a Chinese mining investment in the Arctic (Blair: We remain vigilant in protecting the interest of Canadians), regional flight suspensions (Marc Garneau: This commitment will be part of any aid package), the Yonge subway extension (McKenna: We are waiting for the business plans from the Ontario government), the wage subsidy (Freeland: This came with serious accountability measures), the former veterans minister being cited by the ombudsman (MacAulay: Decisions on files are made by non-partisan civil servants), and basic income (Freeland: We have provided unprecedented support to Canadians, and now we need to focus on the crisis at hand).

Overall, I remain completely baffled that it took the government eight questions before they offered a proper response on the question that the Conservatives were hammering away on with regard to the military exercises with China, and that it wasn’t until that eighth time it was asked that Harjit Sajjan gave a response that left James Bezan sputtering and flat-footed because it blew up in his face. Why Chrystia Freeland couldn’t have given that response on the second or third question from O’Toole and scored that point on him and not on his defence critic is beyond me. Whoever is doing QP prep for this government needs to give their head a gods damned shake. This having been said, I will say it was great to see Freeland also take down Pierre Poilievre’s reliance on conspiracy theory talking points, and call out the Conservatives’ incoherence on things like not sure whether they are protectionists or free traders. It would be great if we got a bit more of this actual sparring rather than happy-clappy talking points, but this is the government whose communications strategy is to step on every rake possible and to resist candour at all costs. The fact that ministers were giving happy-clappy talking points before getting to answering questions put to them is tiresome, and yet this is what they keep doing, over and over again.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Candice Bergen for a long-sleeved v-necked dress with dark grey and dark purple stripes, and to Greg Fergus for a dark grey suit, light blue shirt and navy bow tie. Style citations go out to Robert Waugh for a dark grey suit with a medium blue shirt, navy cardigan, and a blue-grey tie, and to Julie Vignola for a light grey jacket over a dark grey turtleneck and black slacks, while drowning under a giant light blue scarf.

One thought on “QP: Eight questions to get an answer”

  1. The O’Toole gang are making it easier for the government to clip them. Trudeau’s liberals are too damn polite by half. They will need to become a bit more acerbic as we come closer to election time. I think except for Freeland’s reticence today there will be more pushback in the days to come. The conservatives are liars. That is all they have.

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