Another day of the Liberals only putting up Mark Gerretsen in the House, another day of their ongoing contempt for what Parliament means in the face of a pandemic – made worse by this being PMQ day, and the prime minister would only appear virtually. Erin O’Toole led off, in person, on Enbridge Line 5 once again, noting that Imperial Oil is making contingency plans to move the oil by rail if it is shut down, and demanded action. Justin Trudeau, appearing by video, assured him they were engaging with the Americans on Line 5. O’Toole insisted that Trudeau wasn’t engaged as it wasn’t mentioned in any of the readouts of his calls with top US officials, and Trudeau repeated that they are engaging on Line 5 and pointing out its importance. O’Toole pivoted to the front page of the Globe and Mail and its denunciation of the vaccine plan, and demanded a new one — err, which is mostly provincial jurisdiction. Trudeau reminded him of their strong procurement plan, and investments in domestic options. O’Toole changed to French to raise the issue of PnuVax not getting any domestic production contracts, to which Trudeau reminded him of all the domestic investments they made. O’Toole railed that no shipments arrived last week, to which Trudeau reminded him that there will be the fulfilled contracts by the end of the quarter, in spite of fluctuations week-to-week.

Yves-François Blanchet got up to lead for the Bloc, and he lamented the vaccine numbers before demanding the contracts be made public, to which Trudeau contested his assertions.  Blanchet wondered if he got any contracts about getting Pfizer doses from the US, to which Trudeau called out his fear-mongering, and said that they were working to ensure supply chains remain open.

Jagmeet Singh was then up for the NDP, and in French, he wondered why the government didn’t plan for domestic production a year ago, to which Trudeau reminded him that they did invest in domestic options from the very start. Singh accused the government of giving “mixed messages” on domestic production — which is not actually true — before repeating his question in English, for which he got the same response.

Round two, and Richard Martel decried the “lack of funding” for provincial health care — a laughable assertion — and demanded unconditional new health transfers for the provinces (Trudeau: I wouldn’t want you to mislead the House, and we have met over increasing transfer, and have transferred billons of additional dollars over the pandemic; I’m concerned with your characterisation of how we are trying to improve care for seniors), Pierre Paul-Hus disingenuously suggested that vaccines could have been produced domestically (Trudeau: You have repeatedly attributed things to me that aren’t true, and the NRC facility will be done by summer and begin production at the end of the year), and returned to the concern about PnuVax not getting a call (Trudeau: We have pursued partnerships and investments based on the advice of experts), and Michelle Rempel Garner jumped on Trudeau saying there could be “fluctuations” in vaccine deliveries (Trudeau: We knew that production would be challenging, which is why we signed so many contracts, and we will still get six million doses by the end of Q1).

Mark Gerretsen got up and left the Chamber to take a call. There are now zero Liberals in the Chamber.
Slow clap, guys. Way to show that Parliament matters. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) February 3, 2021

Apparently you can develop domestic bio-manufacturing capacity overnight. Who knew? #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) February 3, 2021

Julie Vignola worried about the vaccine rollout math (Trudeau: I’ve already said fifteen times this QP that the overall schedule is on track).

Pierre Poilievre gave a disingenuous comparison of unemployment numbers (Trudeau: We took on federal debt so that Canadians, provinces and businesses wouldn’t have to), James Cumming demanded Huawei be banned (Trudeau: We base our decisions on the advice of top security experts), and O’Toole gave the follow-up (Trudeau: Same answer).

Poilievre chiding the government on household debt when it was his government’s removal of stimulus too quickly and forcing the Bank of Canada to keep rates low for longer, which made commercial debt explode, is too rich. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) February 3, 2021

*Finishes the whole glass* https://t.co/ekTW055AZT

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) February 3, 2021

Taylor Bachrach demanded support for airlines (Trudeau: We are working with the industry because Canadians are looking forward to travelling once this is done), and Laurel Collins demanded and end to fossil fuel subsidies (Trudeau: We are on track to eliminate those subsidies along with our allies).

Round three saw questions on the treatment of Uyghurs by China (Trudeau: We have engaged directly with China, and are calling for UN investigators to be allowed in), PornHub (Trudeau: We take this seriously, and we are bringing in clear rules for internet service providers, as well as working with international partners), a demand to ban all travel until the pandemic is over (Trudeau: We prevented non-essential travellers from arriving from abroad, and had some of the strongest measures which we have just made tougher, which is why 98 percent of transmission is community transmission), demand for airline assistance (Trudeau: We have sent $1.5 billion to the sector since the beginning of the pandemic to support workers), rapid tests as part of the economic strategy (Trudeau: We delivered them to provinces, and some of them are just sitting on them), Dominic Barton’s time at McKinsey in spite of their role in marketing OxyContin (Trudeau: Barton has been crucial in China working to get the two Michaels home), the allegations that arose around General Vance (Trudeau: He has taken the issue seriously, and ensured investigations of allegations and we take that seriously), housing investments (Trudeau: We are securing investments with partners).

Overall, the day suffered from the format, particularly because there were times when Trudeau’s microphone cut out, interrupting proceedings and adding to the sense of aggravation that it doesn’t need to be this way. He should be in the Commons, and send the signal that Parliament matters – especially in a pandemic – and that our institutions remain standing among the chaos, but he has made the choice to do otherwise. I will note that he did push back a bit more effectively today than on some days when it comes to the opposition trying to say that the messaging was confusing when they were instead deliberately misconstruing what he actually said – because who needs the truth in a time of a global pandemic when you can score points? Meanwhile, Erin O’Toole has started returning to his schtick of taking the follow-up questions of several of his MPs, where the sole calculation is to have a broader variety of topics that he can gather clips about for his social media – aside from the theatre of him looking like he’s so engaged on every topic, when really this has all been scripted and choreographed all along.

Sartorial snaps and style citations remain suspended for lack of a sample, or particularly egregious offences.