QP: One last kick at the hybrid can before summer

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For the final sitting day of the spring, the Liberal benches were once again empty save for Mark Gerretsen, the prime minister planning to appear by video from quarantine. Erin O’Toole led off in person, script on his mini-lectern, and he worried that over five years the government has grappled with Operation Honour, and wanted the prime minister to confirm that the defence minister had never hired someone who was found to previously dismissed from an employer for sexual misconduct — obviously laying a trap because he has something he plans to unveil. Trudeau gave praise to Sajjan for his service. O’Toole noted that Trudeau didn’t really answer and gave him another opportunity, and Trudeau praised their work in changing the culture in the military. O’Toole gave him yet another opportunity in French, and Trudeau repeated that they were taking concrete action make this culture change. O’Toole then raised the contracts to Tom Pitfield’s data services company, and wondered if he had been given any other contracts, and Trudeau noted that the casework database their MPs use, it has strict separation from the party database, and warned against cheap attacks. O’Toole raised two other contracts to Pitfield, noted that they were going to crack down on corruption, and wanted the same from the prime minister. Trudeau dismissed the “baseless personal attacks,” and raised the work they were doing for Canadians.

Yves-François Blanchet, in a somber tone, asked the prime minister to reflect on their choice to create two classes of seniors by giving additional benefits for those over 75, and Trudeau recited that they are always there for seniors and that older seniors have greater needs. Blanchet then wanted the prime minster to increase health transfers to promises, and Trudeau reminded him that they have sent billions to the provinces for help in the pandemic, and that eight out of every ten dollars of assistance were federal dollars, but discussions on increasing transfers were coming in the future.

Jagmeet Singh complained that the ultra rich were not being prosecuted for tax evasion while the government was cutting pandemic benefits, for which Trudeau praised the actions they have taken to help Canadians. Singh then decried that the remaining boil-water advisories on First Nations could take five more years and accused this of not being a priority to the government, and Trudeau reminded him of how many advisories they have solved, and that pretending they did nothing was just misleading and cynical politics.

Round two, and Richard Martel raised the bogus “COVID Misery Index” and a poor reading of the retail statistics go hammer at the government (Trudeau: We have been helping Canadians through this pandemic), and complained about the size of the deficit (Trudeau: We chose to help Canadians), and Raquel Dancho complained there was no “real” plan to get people get back to work (Trudeau: The plan has always been to have Canadians’ backs until we are out of this pandemic; The plan is in Budget 2021, which you keep voting against).

Christine Normandin demanded that the federal government support Quebec’s language legislation (Trudeau: We recognised the need to protect French throughout Canada, and our official languages bill will do this), and noted that Trudeau said that a bilingual Canada means a primarily French Quebec (Trudeau: It’s true, and we need to protect francophones outside of Quebec).

Michelle Rempel Garner made a specious comparison with the Ebola outbreak several years ago (Trudeau: If the Conservatives were in charge, they would have slashed benefits), pretended that Conservatives wouldn’t have let vaccine manufacturing atrophy in Canada — never mind that it did under their watch (Trudeau: You haven’t been paying much attention). The travel measures (Trudeau: I’m sure you’re eager to travel to Oklahoma, but we are easing restrictions for the fully vaccinated), and complained about his lack of empathy (Trudeau: It would be easier to believe you cared about empathy if you didn’t spend the pandemic complaining we were helping Canadians instead of businesses).

Singh was back up to complain that the government wasn’t doing enough for the housing crisis (Trudeau: We have been tackling it with our national housing strategy), and accused the government of abandon pharmacare (Trudeau: Under the constitution, this is under the provincial jurisdiction and we have been working with them to move forward on making this happen).

Round three saw questions on the prime minister’s ethics (Trudeau: You are making baseless personal attacks, while your party votes against things like banning conversion therapy), pleading for a royal recommendation for the Bloc’s bill to enrich EI sickness benefits to 50 weeks (Trudeau: We are extending the benefits from 15 to 26 weeks in the budget), one of the fired scientists from the Winnipeg Lab filing patents in China (Trudeau: I have asked the minister to follow-up), and releasing those documents (Trudeau: We did file the documents with NSICOP and we are working with the other parties on a solution).

O’Toole then worried about Trudeau’s personal ethical conduct (Trudeau: You have been focused more on partisan attacks than supporting Canadians), O’Toole sounded offended that Trudeau called it personal attacks, and wanted a commitment to “never again break the law” (Trudeau: You are focused on spreading mud to see what sticks).

Singh accused the government of doing nothing about long term care (Trudeau: This kind of thing encourages cynicism, and then listed measures taken).

Overall, the day was strange – the grandstanding was kept within a tone of affected gravitas, and Erin O’Toole telegraphed that he was laying some kind of a trap that he was collecting clips for, but didn’t follow through today, meaning he’s holding something in reserve. (It was released in the media a couple of hours later). Add to that, the focus on the prime minister “breaking the law” with regard to ethics rules was often couched in a number of specious comparisons or torqued allegations that amounted to little – but this is about O’Toole trying to set the narrative about his supposedly being an antidote to “corruption,” never mind that the penny ante bullshit that he’s raising is extremely small ball when you look at any other country in the world. And seriously, trying to insist this is the “most corrupt” government in Canadian history shows that apparently Michael Barrett hasn’t read any Canadian history. I mean, seriously.

Otherwise, both the Bloc and the Jagmeet Singh for the NDP were giving some greatest hits clips. The Conservatives once again showed that they have zero understanding about how economics works, and continued to use stats misleadingly, so this was nothing new in that regard. I’m just glad that this was the end of the session – aside from the absolute horror show that hybrid sittings have been, this has been a toxic session that has been marked by some of the most disingenuous allegations and outright bald-faced lies that we’ve seen being tossed around casually (and going unchallenged). There is a serious erosion of democratic norms, and no one can pat themselves on the back for what has taken place.

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

2 thoughts on “QP: One last kick at the hybrid can before summer”

  1. Trudeau’s “ethics scandals” are some kinda ’80s bumbling Chevy Chase BS. We have National Lampoon’s Aga Khan Vacation, National Lampoon’s India Vacation, a petty workplace soap opera with a drama queen and her gullible sidekick, and some nonsense about his mom and a charity appeal. Oh, right, I forgot: he got a little too enthusiastic about his audition for a community theatre version of “Soul Man.” OK, that one maybe more in Ted Danson’s wheelhouse than Chevy Chase, but still: it’s almost comical the “scrapes” he finds himself in, that the Cons label as “corruption.” He’s a dork, not a crook.

    Harper sat on documents about tortured prisoners, and stole elections with robocalls. Today he goes around chumming about with authoritarian thugs like Viktor Orban. Johnny Mac genocided Indigenous people. Scott Moe accidentally ran over someone with his car. Kenney… uh, Kenney, and Doug Ford, Doug Ford. What even was Sponsorship again? Something about golf balls? Liberal “scandals” are nothing compared to the absolute WTFery from Cons. More projection than an IMAX theatre!

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