QP: Glad you’re keeping to your Queen’s Park roots

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For proto-PMQ day, not only was the prime minister present, but there were six Liberals including two other Cabinet ministers — almost unheard of in the current situation. Erin O’Toole led off, scripts on mini-lectern, and he raised the scourge of domestic violence, citing a recent incident in Quebec, and Justin Trudeau readily listed off the investments that his government had made in combatting it. O’Toole then switched to the topic of the the delay between vaccine doses, claiming the federal government mandated the four-month gap — which they did not — and complained about the delay in doses arriving. Trudeau reminded him that NACI is arm’s length and they follow guidance while they have procured vaccines that are arriving. From there, O’Toole asked if the National Security Advisor was tasked with investigating the allegations against General Vance, for which Trudeau stated that allegations were sent to the proper authorities and that politicians should not be involved. O’Toole waved an email from the former Advisor in saying he was not alerted to the allegations, and Trudeau repeated that they always forward allegations to the proper authorities, and that they need to ensure there are resources and recourse for those who come forward. O’Toole repeated that question in French, and got much the same answer. 

Yves-François Blanchet raised a Quebec port that is damaged and can’t participate in crab season, for which Trudeau stated that they are working with local authorities to ensure the safety of fishers and those who use the facilities, and that they were doing everything they could to support them. Blanchet then moved to whether a high-frequency train route would be in the budget, for which Trudeau told him to wait for the budget, before offering a paean to the people in Trois-Rivières he met earlier this week.

Jagmeet Singh then rose for the NDP, and in French, he castigated other parties in the Commons for voting down their motion on removing profit from long-term care, and Trudeau chided that this is Ottawa and they have to respect provincial jurisdiction. Singh switched to English to repeat his plaintive wail, and he got the same answer.

Round two, and Richard Martel demanded to know when he knew of the allegations around General Vance (Trudeau: I have been answering this for months, and I was made aware that the minister referred the ombudsman to follow up with authorities), Leona Alleslev repeated the question in English (Trudeau: Same answer, in English), James Bezan went yet another round on the same (Trudeau, with script: It is clear the measures we have taken haven’t gone far enough and we will do more and faster).

Blanchet was back up and demanded an increase in pensions for all seniors in the budget, not just those over 75 (Trudeau: The political game you are playing is disappointing), and another demand for unconditional health transfers (Trudeau: We will continue to work to ensure that Quebeckers and all Canadians have all the support they need in this pandemic and beyond).

Michael Barrett raised a PMO staffer’s role in the WE Imbroglio (Trudeau: Are you still on this? We are focused on the priorities of Canadians), and Pierre Poilievre raised the same with added smarm (Trudeau: Same answer; This line of attack is all about trying to distract Canadians from your disastrous convention last weekend).

Alexandre Boulerice demanded support for the NDP’s plan to help students debt — for upper-middle class students (Trudeau: We have provided all kinds of supports to students), and Jenny Kwan raised anti-Asian racism (Trudeau: This is terrible, and we have an anti-racism secretariat that is working to combat it).

Round three saw questions on the possibility of vaccine shipments from Europe possibly being blocked (Trudeau: We are concerned with the reports of potential restrictions, and we are engaging at the highest levels), possible doses being held back by India (Trudeau: We are working with that government but have no indication our shipments will be affected), granting citizenship to Raïf Badawi (Trudeau: We have been working on his case for years and I have personally spoken to the Crown Prince and King, and we are working on his citizenship issue), approving arms exports to Turkey (Trudeau: When reports surfaced, we immediately suspended exports), nineteen staff being assigned to help Bill Morneau’s OECD bid (Trudeau: It’s important to support Canadian leadership in multilateral institutions, especially those that recognise that climate change is a challenge we need to address), Chevron exiting their LNG project (Trudeau: Global investors know that climate change is real and there are parties and provincial governments that fight against this, and this resistance is an economic risk for those investors; The only plan for jobs and growth is a plan to fight climate change), and the Canada Infrastructure Bank (Trudeau: I can point to a key project in Montreal, and we know that investing in infrastructure is a key way to create jobs).

Overall, it was perhaps not as obnoxious a day as yesterday, but the early portion was certainly scattershot, with a multitude of topics for Erin O’Toole to gather clips from right off the start rather than doing his follow-up shtick in later rounds. Of course, the fact that he led with a lie in his second question is just one more example of how much this exercise has degenerated, and how it’s not being called out terribly effectively by the government or Trudeau personally. I did appreciate that Trudeau did call out Jagmeet Singh’s jurisdictional obfuscation (because it is deliberate) on the long-term care question, and that he noted that the reason that the WE Imbroglio questions are making a comeback is because the Conservatives are trying to distract from that climate change vote on the weekend. I will also add that, somewhat unusually, Trudeau had some particularly good responses to the concerns about oil and gas projects with talking about international investors recognising the problem of climate change and that parties and provincial governments who fight measures to combat it are actually jeopardising their own investment positions. It’s one of those truths that puts a lie to the notion that there is a binary choice between economic growth or the environment, and the fact that the global financial community is on board should be a signal to certain populists that they need to get with the programme or risk being left behind.

Sartorial snaps and citations remain on hiatus for lack of a sufficient sample size.

4 thoughts on “QP: Glad you’re keeping to your Queen’s Park roots”

  1. Curious if you listen to his interview this week with ‘Pod Save The World;?

  2. Someone needs to put Poilievre in the hot seat and attach him to an ECT polygraph machine. First question: How much has his nose grown since his big lie-for-the-camera stage show last July? How much? How much? How much? How much? How much?

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