It was yet another day where the Liberals had only a single MP in the Chamber yet again, no matter that there were plenty of other of their MPs in the building, continuing to show their contempt for Parliament as a result. (A second MP joined him for a few minutes, then left again). Candice Bergen led off virtually, and she railed about the threats to Enbridge Line 5, to which Seamus O’Regan agreed that the pipeline was vital and they were working to secure it. Bergen was not mollified and grumbled that the prime minister didn’t answer before demanding he do more to protect it. O’Regan assured her they were working on the file and it served no purpose to conflate it with other issues. Bergen railed that Trudeau had failed under three successive presidents to protect the energy sector, and O’Regan repeated his assurances that they were doing everything possible. Richard Martel took over in French to demand more vaccines, to which Anita Anand first started off by acknowledgement Black History Month and let it be known that she works to reach out to the Black community for procurement needs, before turning to the question and assuring him that there are two vaccine shipments arriving this week. Martel was not impressed and demanded vaccines immediately, and Anand assured him that factories were ramping up production to meet demand.

The Liberals are continuing their contemptuous practice of having only Mark Gerretsen in the Chamber. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) February 1, 2021

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and he demand a guarantee that vaccine deliveries were going to get back on track, to which Anand assured him that a Pfizer shipment was en route. Therrien railed that this was not good enough, but Anand insisted that they shared this priority of getting vaccines to Canadians, and that the overall schedule was not affected. Jagmeet Singh led for the NDP, and in French, he demanded all non-essential flights be cancelled, to which Omar Alghabra reminded him that they have some of the toughest measures in the world, and listed them. Singh repeated the demand in English, and got the same answer,

Round two, and Michelle Rempel Garner engaged in a series of revisionist history around border controls and rapid testing before turning to vaccines (Alghabra: We have some of the strictest border measures), and then repeated her question of how many Canadians needed to be vaccinated before travel restrictions were lifted (Hajdu: We are working on this with our partners, because we still don’t know the effect of these vaccines on transmission), Pierre Paul-Hus worried about the EU’s vaccine export controls (Bendayan: The PM got assurances from the president of the European Commission that we will not be affected), and Tracy Gray demanded the same assurances in English (Bendayan: You heard directly from the minister earlier at committee today that we have been received reassurance from our European counterparts), and rumours that Belgium is thinking of its own export controls (Bendayan: The minister did have conversations with her counterpart in Belgium and got assurances we would not be affected).

I always love when an MP reading a script demands that a minister not read their talking points. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) February 1, 2021

Kristina Michaud and Xavier Barsalou-Duval demanded to know why all non-essential flights weren’t being banned (Rodriguez: We already had some of the strictest measures and we have strengthened them even more; We have done everything the Quebec government asked for).

Peter Kent complained that a Kingston student bragged in the newspaper that he invested CERB dollars in a stock market play and cashed in (Qualtrough: The eligibility included anyone over fifteen, and we don’t apologise for helping students), and how a new company was denied access to the wage subsidy for not having older data to compare to (Freeland: We needed to balance the urgent need of support with integrity measures, and we are looking at how to help new businesses), and Luc Berthold railed about the Byzantine measures people go through to get assistance (Qualtrough: We ensured a simplified benefit in order to ensure that people only get one benefit, but this integrity measure can cause a delay).

Taylor Bachrach demanded that flights from destinations with known variant strains are not being banned (Alghabra: Our measures are some or the toughest in the world, and are not half-measures), and Alistair MacGregor repeated the exclusion of new businesses from pandemic supports (Bendayan: We launched a new programme for highly affected sectors).

Round three saw questions on opioid overdoses while Dominic Barton was a managing partner with McKinsey, which has been accused of pushing OxyContin sales (Garneau: I won’t comment on that question but I will praise Barton for his deep experience with China), claims that deficit financing didn’t produce promised growth (Freeland: Our government’s policies are working and supporting Canadians in a difficult time), demanding that Raïf Badawi be given citizenship in order to assist his consular case (Mendicino: We are continuing to raise his case at the highest levels and are demanding he be given clemency), saving Line 5 (O’Regan: We support Line 5 and are working at all levels), support for more pipelines (O’Regan: We have done more for the sector than the Conservatives and TMX continues to be under construction), the joint agreement on the Lake Winnipeg outlet channel (Wilkinson: We have been working with the government of Manitoba, and we are waiting for more information fromm them before we can complete the process), a particular contract (Anand: I will look into this), rural internet connectivity (Monsef: We invested to connect 1.7 million households, and we are expanding this with new funds), police violence without consequence (Blair: Trust requires transparency and accountability, and we are working with provinces on reforms), and reducing mobile phone costs (Champagne: We are taking action on our promise to reduces prices, and the latest affordability tracker is now online).

Oh FFS.
GOVERNMENT DEFICITS ARE NOT THE EQUIVALENT OF CREDIT CARD DEBT.
This trope needs to die in a fire. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) February 1, 2021

Overall, it was a fairly unexciting day, once you get past my incandescent rage that the Liberals continue to show contempt for Parliament in not sending more than one MP to the Chamber at a time. The Conservatives refused to take yes for an answer in all of their scripted outrage on the Enbridge Line 5 questions, and I’m not sure how many more ways the government could say that they were working at all levels with their American counterparts to ensure that it doesn’t get shut down. I’m not sure what more the government can do, other than throw a tantrum in public – recall that the Conservatives’ tactics under Harper of plastering Washington DC with ads in support of Canadian pipelines as “no brainers” didn’t exactly work. It would have been great if the government had been able to provide a better answer to border closures than Omar Alghabra’s wooden reading that they have some of the strongest measures in the world, but hey, this government keeps proving that they can’t communicate their way out of a wet paper bag. I will give props to Patty Hajdu for actually providing a real answer to Michelle Rempel Garner’s question on whether people who have been vaccinated will be exempt from travel restrictions because we still don’t have enough data on whether people who have been vaccinated can still pass on the virus – which is a pretty big deal when it comes to the point of travel restrictions.

Sartorially snaps and style citations continue to be on hold for lack of a properly representative sample (but if there is something egregious in the Chamber, it will be noted).