QP: Green Lanterning the price of houses

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With the prime minister still in Belgium, there were a lot more Conservatives than usual in the Chamber, which made for a louder day. As for the Liberal ranks, Mark Gerretsen was joined by Kate Young for possibly the first time since the Hybrid sittings began, but the imbalance between both sides of the Chamber was very noticeable. Erin O’Toole in led off in French, and from his script, he read about how Trudeau was apparently so preoccupied with becoming the “Dean of G7” and apparent celebrity meetings (of which there haven’t been any) while he ignored the job losses back in Canada. Chrystia Freeland replied by pointing out that the Conservatives have been using procedural tactics to delay debate on the budget implementation bill. O’Toole switched to English, to decry that a Toronto developer snapped up housing, thus driving up prices, for which Ahmed Hussen reminded him that the current government was doing more for affordable housing than the Conservatives ever did. O’Toole demanded that the government somehow lower housing prices before the summer — maybe using a Green Lantern ring? — and Hussen repeated that he had no lessons to take from the Conservatives. From there, O’Toole started slamming Harjit Sajjan, accusing him of stolen valour, and of being “buddies” with General Jonathan Vance, and Sajjan brushed off the allegations. O’Toole put on a performance of theatrical anger to demand Sajjan’s resignation, and Sajjan hit back by reminding O’Toole that his government still appointed Vance while he was under active investigation. 

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and he demanded support for a motion to validate Quebec’s plan to unilaterally amend the constitution, for which David Lametti noted there are amending formulas and their proposal needed to ensure other rights were protected, which he got assurances about. Therrien railed about Section 45 — which is what the Quebec government has largely proposed — and Lametti spoke about clarifying the motion about Quebec being a nation in a United Canada.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP in French, and he demanded that the government not cut pandemic supports, to which Carla Qualtrough reminded him that the budget implementation bill will extend benefits. Singh switched to English to rail that there was still a cut to supports, and Qualtrough noted there are other supports available.

Round two, and Ed Fast demanded a national re-opening plan — which is largely the domain of the provinces (Freeland: The real question is when you will let Canada restart its economy by passing the budget), Richard Martel worried about lumber prices — because apparently he doesn’t understand the laws of supply and demand (Ng: I have raised softwood tariffs at every opportunity), and Pierre Poilievre railed somewhat incoherently about job numbers (Freeland: Thanks to the reliance of Canadians, we’ve recovered 81 percent of pandemic job losses, compared to 66 percent in the US; Rodriguez: This is rich coming from you guys, who keep trying to shut down debate).

Christine Normdin wanted assurances of government support for the Bloc’s motion on Quebec nationhood (Rodriguez: We have already recognised this, and you don’t have a monopoly on the love for Quebec and the French language).

Michael Barrett and Luc Berthold accused the government of sending staffers to campaign in the Newfoundland and Labrador provincial election (O’Regan: No rules were broken, and they campaigned on their day off).

Alexandre Boulerice railed that the government tabled their Official Languages Act changes six days before the summer break (Joly: We have done a lot of work on this, and are you going to support the bill), and Jenny Kwan returned to the story about the Toronto developer buying up housing to turn it into rentals (Hussen: Thank you for waking up to the issue, and here is a list of what we have done and what we will do with more investments).

Round three saw demands for Harjit Sajjan to resign (Sajjan: We will take no lessons from your party), plus questions about an Eastern Ontario internet and cellphone bid (Monsef: We have been on this since 2015 and have funded projects, and you are misrepresenting that conversation), the language of work in Quebec (Joly: We are extending further protections to French in areas of high francophone concentration), compensation for vegetable growers who suffered pandemic losses (Bibeau: There are a certain number of programmes available and our officials will analyse the situation), faster applications for temporary foreign workers (Mendicino: We doubled the number in Quebec over the past six years in spite of the pandemic, and we have already admitted over 8500 to Quebec this year), ending hotel quarantines (Hajdu: We have some of the strongest border measures, and we are guided by science), targets for government contracts for Indigenous businesses (Anand: Your question is inaccurate, and over the pandemic, we awarded 40 contracts to 31 self-identified Indigenous businesses), home prices (Hussen: We are doing more than your party ever did), a Muslim woman attacked in Edmonton (Chagger: Hate is the reality for too many, and that’s why we have Canada’s anti-racism strategy), an inquiry on the Indigenous hospital system (Bennett: There are outstanding claims, and we are committed to collaborative discussions).

Overall, it was a slightly unusual day in terms of how things got underway, O’Toole one asking about jobs in French, before English-only questions on housing prices and calling for Sajjan’s resignation – and he’s late to that game, however. On the Toronto housing prices, I fail to see what particular levers the federal government is able to apply that could reduce home prices (to the screams of people who wouldn’t want to see their home equity reduced – that would be political suicide), and I find it a bit cute that they are demanding magic from the government on it. On Sajjan, they should be calling for his resignation, but rather than being sober and meticulous about it, they instead couched the demand in a bunch of personal attacks, which only muddies the water and makes the demand look mean-spirited rather than a proper exercise of ministerial responsibility. The fact that they seem to be oblivious to this reality is mystifying.

Meanwhile, the fact that there were a lot more Conservatives in the Chamber than usual today made for a much louder and more disruptive QP, where they would be jockeying for each other’s attention, making loud and unclever comments about the responses coming over video – and O’Toole was one of the worst offenders among them, so he was certainly setting the tone for his caucus. If anything, this is pointing to one of the biggest weaknesses of these gods-forsaken hybrid sittings – the fact that they don’t have to look at the minister who is responding, that the minister isn’t even in the room, incentivises this kind of childish behaviour because the minister can’t respond to it. Normally I’m not opposed to heckling (so long as it’s not particularly crude, boorish or sexist) – sometimes the cross-talk is quite informative! But this one-sided, clubby behaviour was more about impressing each other than it was about the actual point of what heckling tends to be about. The fact that the Speaker was again just gently chiding than laying down the law on this behaviour didn’t help either. These hybrid sittings can’t end soon enough.

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

One thought on “QP: Green Lanterning the price of houses”

  1. I don’t think the Cons’ behavior has anything to do with hybrid sittings. This is just who they are. Actually, when the hybrid sittings end I think they’re going to feel “unleashed” and it’lll be worse, with all of them in the chamber at once booing and jeering like drunks at a hockey game. Or worse, pro wrestling, since they’re clearly going to chase the GQP/Tea Party/Trump train off the cliff of basic decorum or anything resembling decency. Snowball fights on the floor to “debunk” climate change can’t be too far off.

    In 2019 amid the Jodygate fracas, they pounded on their desks like babies in high chairs shouting LET HER SPEAK! When Parliament returns this fall — election or no election — I would not be surprised in the least if the Con caucus erupted in a full-blown Kurt Angle “You Suck!” chant when Trudeau enters the room. At least they know by now that Justin “The Rock” Trudeau comes “armed” with the People’s Elbow if they really get out of sorts.

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