QP: Unchallenged misinformation around inflation

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For the first day back after a week away and the Victoria Day long weekend, the prime minister was present, along with Liberal placeholder Mark Gerretsen as the only other MP present on the government benches. Erin O’Toole led off, script on his mini-lectern, and Erin O’Toole led off citing misleading statistics about inflation, for which Justin Trudeau recited some platitudes about having people’s backs. O’Toole complained that housing was becoming unaffordable, and Trudeau listed actions they took, like raising taxes on the top one percent and the Canada Child Benefit as ways they are making life more affordable. O’Toole then raised the American tactic to raise softwood lumber tariffs, which doesn’t really affect the Canadian market (as it will only make it more expensive for Americans as there is a lack of supply in the market), and Trudeau wondered where O’Toole had been the last five years as the government stood up against American trade measures. O’Toole repeated his misleading inflation question in French, fo the same platitudes in French, and the repeated the softwood lumber tariff question in French. Trudeau repeated that they have delivered for the past five years.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and he raised Quebec’s Bill 96, and wanted Trudeau to praise it. Trudeau reminded him that they want to protect French while also protecting linguistic minorities and that he looked forward to working with the government of Quebec on it. Blanchet took this as a yes, and wanted a more positive explicit endorsement. Trudeau reminded him that he works with the premiers, and he would meet them again later this week.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and in French, he accused the banks of “stealing” from people by raising fees and that the federal government could stop them but haven’t. Trudeau listed the measures they are taking to make the wealthy pay their fair share. Singh switched to English to quote the deputy minister of National Defence on the lack of progress on the Deschamps Report, for which Trudeau recited that the institution isn’t living up to its goals, and listed the actions they have taken, calling them “first steps.”

Round two, and Alain Rayes worried that the government was no longer in favour of Net Neutrality (Guilbeault: Your definition looks at infrastructure, which Bill C-10 has nothing to do with), and tried to wedge the CRTC’s role as a threat to that (Guilbeault: The National Assembly of Quebec supports this bill, and so do all of these artists), and Rachael Harder repeated this question of Net Neutrality (Guilbeault: This bill is not about telecommunications or web hardware), and she raised Canadian YouTubers who made it big (Guilbeault: You have a profound misunderstanding about this bill, and you even asked Ministry of Justice officials about this at committee).

Christine Normandin demanded federal approval of Quebec’s Bill 96 (Joly: I would be pleased to work with you to achieve our shared goals).

Michael Chong returned to his promulgation of the two scientists fired from the national lab in Winnipeg (Hajdu: These scientists are no longer employed), and worried that Chinese military scientists had access to the Winnipeg lab (Hajdu: The work this lab does is really great), and Pierre Paul-Hus repeated the questions in French (Hajdu: They no longer work here, but the head of the lab has categorically stated they had no work on COVID; scientists collaborate across the world).

Lindsay Mathyssen returned to the deputy minister of National Defence’s comments (Sajjan: The measures we have implemented have not gone are enough, and we have more to do), and Richard Cannings wanted an end to new oil and gas projects if we are to meet climate targets and cited a misleading statistics about subsidies (Wilkinson: We need cleaner solutions and that’s what we have been doing).

Round three saw questions on cross-border vaccinations (Anand: You make broad use of the word “failure,” and here are stats to prove we are continuing apace; Hajdu: 61 percent of Canadians have received a first dose), the Ontario Court decision declaring the PS752 downing as a terrorist act and demanding the Revolutionary Guard be listed as a terrorist entity (Garneau: We are reviewing the decision, and we will not cease to pursue Iran until they give answers; Blair: We have sanctions against the IRGC and all of its senior leadership), denouncing a pandemic election (LeBlanc: I shouldn’t be surprised by the lack of coherence from the Bloc, given that they recently voted no confidence in the budget; Rodriguez: You are the ones who insisted you wanted an election), not letting parents down with child care spaces (Qualtrough: In the budget, we are putting forward $30 billion for childcare), Hamilton being less affordable for housing than New York City (Freeland: Affordable housing is a priority, and here is a list of things we are doing), Bill C-10 (Guilbeault: The bill is about web giants), American cruise ships not docking in Canada on the way to Alaska (Alghabra: We will engage all stakeholders on the issue, but do you want tough border measures or not?), the MSM blood ban and the conversion therapy bill (Hajdu: We agree the ban is discriminatory, and we are funding the research to end the ban), and people who couldn’t get EI after self-employment (Qualtrough: EI and recovery benefits are important tools).

Overall, I find it incredibly frustrating that the prime minister won’t actually correct disinformation when presented with it – in this case, the inflation figures, and he must have known that these questions were coming because it’s been the Conservative narrative for a week, and they are going to town on it. Hell, Trudeau could go into teacher mode and lecture them on the base effect, but no, it’s happy-clappy talking points instead, which helps absolutely nobody and lets the Conservatives get away with outright lying to the House, and to the public. I also noticed how deliberately vague Trudeau was when it comes to Quebec’s Bill 96, particularly on the plans to unilaterally amend the constitution, which again helps nobody – but, then again, perhaps he needs to walk back his comments last week on the acceptability of those plans.

Meanwhile, the Conservatives trying to wedge Bill C-10 into issues of Net Neutrality are both muddying the waters about what is actually in the bill (not that honesty has bene their strong suit on this file either). Steven Guilbeault has not acquitted himself on this file, and has made boneheaded comments about Net Neutrality in the past, but seemed to stick to his talking points today and didn’t get too far off track with them, so maybe we can chalk that up in the column of small victories for the government. I also continue to be disappointed that Michael Chong continues to promulgate conspiracy theories with the two fired scientists from the Winnipeg lab, albeit with slightly less racist framing today, though the minister did at least state at one point that they had nothing to do with COVID, which is exactly what the insinuations have been even if they’re not saying it out loud.

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

One thought on “QP: Unchallenged misinformation around inflation”

  1. I’m certain that Trudeau has bee admonished by hordes of Liberals to put a stop to the cons constant use of lies and innuendo to criticize the actions of the government. He chooses to let this go, but perhaps he is convinced that, 1. the majority of Canadians don’t care about what is said in QP, 2.Political junkies look at what the con gang says as bitter “playing the game” politics, and 3. Intelligent people, and yes there are many out there, recognize that the con tactics are because they have no positive policies with which to counter the measures being put forward by the minority government. So we will watch as the cons flounder in their mean failed way to attack. I don’t like that Trudeau doesn’t often rise to the bait but I think he knows that there is no need to fight a party which has lost its way with Canadians not privileged white, christian or fascist.

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