QP: Blaming the lockdowns on vaccines

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With Ontario back under a “stay-at-home order,” the numbers in the Chamber are again back to bare-bones, with the Liberals once again resorting to only keeping Mark Gerretsen in the Chamber and no one else, with only two NDP MPs present, and four Bloc MPs. Additionally, those Bloc MPs stayed out of the Chamber until after the moment of silence for the death of Prince Philip was over, because they really are that petty about our constitutional monarchy. Candice Bergen off for the Conservatives via video, and she recited the party’s bullshit assertion that the lack of vaccines was responsible for the current round of “lockdowns,” which serious people know was never the way out of the second or third waves. Anita Anand replied by pointing out that Canada surpassed their targets for receiving vaccines by over 3.9 million doses. Bergen then lied and claimed that the Americans issued a travel advisory to Canada last week — that advice had been in place for months and is the same as every other country — for which Patty Hajdu reminded everyone that now is not the time to travel. Bergen complained more about “lockdowns,” to which Hajdu reminded her that even with vaccinations underway that people still need to adhere to public health measures, and that the federal government doesn’t determine local advice. Gérard Deltell then took over in French to proffer the ridiculous complaint that the Americans have fully vaccinated ten times more people than Canada has, and insisted the federal government failed. Anand repeated her response about vaccines delivered, and when Deltell condescended to her about the quality of her French before complaining she didn’t answer the question, Anand repeated that vaccines were ahead of target.

For the Bloc, Alain Therrien complained that the government was practicing “predatory federalism” by attaching strings to future transfers in the budget, which Sean Fraser refuted with listing increased transfers to the provinces. Therrien was not convinced, but Pablo Rodriguez discounted his concerns as rumours, as they were working well with the provinces.

Jagmeet Singh led the NDP, and in French, he complained that the third wave was getting worse, and that the federal government needed to improve paid sick leave — which is provincial jurisdiction in 94 percent of workplaces. Rodriguez again responded by reminding him of federal supports and working with the provinces. In English, Singh declared that Ontario is “on fire” and made a pitch for Green Lantern Theory, including so-called federal support for vaccinations, to which Hajdu reminded him that the field hospitals set up in provinces that need it are from the federal government.

Round two, and Michael Barrett brayed that staffers were not being allowed to appear at committee in violation of the constitutional norm of ministerial responsibility (Rodriguez: Ministers are accountable to parliament, not staff), Pierre Poilievre demanded the same with added smarm (Rodriguez: Same answer), and James Bezan complained that staffers did not appear at the defence committee (Sajjan: I appeared at the committee for over six hours over three sessions).

Stéphane Bergeron returned to the complaint that the government wants to attach strings to transfers (Rodriguez: We are working well with the provincial governments), and complained about vaccines and the borders (Rodriguez: We are being as strict at the borders that we can).

Michael Chong worried the government was threatening to withhold funding to the Halifax Security Forum if they gave a prize to the president of Taiwan (Garneau: We will always be there to defend human rights and have put sanctions on Chinese officials), and he complained about the WHO needing reforms (Garneau: We recognise that more must be done to understand the origins of COVID-19 and we recognise the shortcomings of the report), Taiwan’s handling of the pandemic (Garneau: We recognise Taiwan’s success in handling the pandemic).

Alexandre Boulerice demanded legal status be granted to the St. Lawrence river (Bittle: We are committed to the protection of freshwater, and are moving ahead with the St. Lawrence Action Plan), and Laurel Collins demanded all fossil fuel subsidies be ended (Bittle: The report you’re quoting includes our funding to clean up orphan wells).

Round three saw questions on NACI’s changing advice around AstraZeneca (Hajdu: Everyone can sign up for NACI’s advice newsletters), and demanding media access to NACI’s meetings (Hajdu: You are trying to create fear about vaccine advice), the Halifax Security Forum (Sajjan: They are an independent organisation and they make their own decisions, and I approved two funding requests for them last  year), vaccines (Anand: We are ahead of scheduled), increasing OAS for all seniors, not just those over 75 (Schulte: Older seniors have greater needs), universal basic income (Fraser: We made certain to help Canadians in their time of need, and we will consider various options moving forward), rural broadband (Monsef: We are connecting tens of thousands of Canadians through our broadband fund), a bunch of conflated nonsense around mental health (Hajdu: You know none of this is true), emergency management practices (Hajdu: We have been there for provinces and territories every step of the way, just like you are demanding), increasing taxes (Fraser: We ensured the wealthy paid their fair share), and Jagmeet Singh returned to demand more Green Lantern Theory (Hajdu: We are there for provinces), and a demand to use the Bank of Canada for infrastructure spending (Fraser: The Bank is independent of government).

Overall, the day went about as could be expected, given that the Conservatives have chosen a particular narrative about the government’s “failure” on vaccines creating more “lockdowns,” which has not actual basis in reality – but they are keen to reinforce this bogus narrative at all costs. And so here we are. Otherwise, the Bloc getting the vapours that a federal government wants to tie strings to future transfers is kind of hilarious because that’s how federalism works, but it’s also a bit of an indictment as to the level of discourse around it. At the same time, Jagmeet Singh is trying to promulgate the notion of Green Lantern Theory – that the federal government can do all kinds of actions in areas of provincial jurisdiction if they simply exert enough willpower to do so, and it’s both childish and frustrating. The constitution doesn’t work that way, and it would be great if all of the parties would stop pretending otherwise.

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

5 thoughts on “QP: Blaming the lockdowns on vaccines”

  1. Trudeau bad because China. Trudeau bad because vaccines. Trudeau bad because provincial murderclowns don’t exist. Trudeau bad because Trudeau dad bad. Trudeau bad because WE WE WE all the way home. Trudeau bad because Trudeau bad. Do any of the opposition parties have a new schtick or is it just going to be the same series of reruns until an election comes, the pandemic abates, or the heat death of the universe arrives, whichever comes first?

  2. I do wonder if it helps Canadian monarchists that the anti-monarchist stance is so associated with the Bloc Quebecois and separatism since outside Quebec [and even with part of Quebec itself certainly], it’s massively unpopular and disliked by Canadians across the country.

  3. I think my LIberal friends need to take a look at how White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki responds to bullshit questions. She does a superbly beautiful put-down on the idiotic questions asked by reporters. IMHO, the responses given by our Liberal Ministers … somebody needs to fire their communications consultant speech writers and hire people who know how to respond to this BS.

    An example of Jen Psaki’s responses.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7GcfshETFE

    There are many, many more … and she’s only just getting started.

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