QP: What is your inflation position today?

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Even though the prime minister was in town, he was not in Question Period, but his deputy was, so that was something. Erin O’Toole led off, script on his mini-lectern, and he worried about the news that the coming fiscal update would only have “limited information,” and worrying about them covering up spending. Chrystia Freeland stood up and recited O’Toole’s floundering position on whether inflation is a global problem or not. O’Toole retorted that she was the only politician to have been flagged on Twitter for misleading information, and demanded that she tell the Bank of Canada to get inflation under control. Freeland chided O’Toole for not realising that monetary policy is the role of the Bank, which is arm’s length from government. O’Toole started sputtering about small businesses suffering from inflation, and Freeland reminded him that their campaign documents promised even more government spending in the current fiscal year, and wondered what their position was today. O’Toole demanded to know then a budget would be balanced, and Freeland recited the Economist’s top-ten list of most expensive cities to live in, and noted that none were in Canada. O’Toole then switched to French to say that Quebeckers were tired of living paycheque to paycheque. Freeland repeated the same Economist list in response.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and he worried that the prime minister didn’t raise softwood tariff while in Washington, and Freeland stated that while she could not match Therrien’s ability to play on words, but the file was important and they were continuing to defend the sector’s interest like they did for aluminium. Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay demanded that the government insist on separate treatment for Quebec because their forestry rules are different, while Freeland assured him that they were defending sector.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and he worried that the COVID rules were too confusing for travellers. Freeland said that they agreed that the fight against COVID was the most important issue for the country and vaccination was the way out, but noted that the current rules are a circuit-breaker to buy them time. Singh repeated the question in French, and repeated her response.

Round two, and Rick Perkins asked about clawbacks for the special COVID benefits for fishers (Murray: The benefit was made available in two tranches, and some estimates needed to be made and corrections made in the end, but we are working on it), Mel Arnold worried about the state of Pacific salmon (Murray: Pacific salmon is very important to us and to BC), Leslyn Lewis asked if the minister had read the Marshall Decision in its entirely (Murray: The restoration of abundance of our stocks is what underpins all of our work, and the we have never stopped working to implement the Supreme Court affirmed treaty right to fish), Bernard Généroux asked the same again in French (Murray: We are working with communities to implement this right and I have met with the Mi’kmaw leaders).

Rhéal Fortin wanted immediate action on gun violence in advance of the coming summit called by the mayor of Montreal (Mendicino: He have invested an additional $350 million at the border, and seized more weapons at the border this week), and Kristina Michaud repeated the demand (Mendicino: We have proposals to create new partnerships with municipalities to better control handguns).

Kerry-Lynne Findlay worried about the buildup of Russian forces along the border of Ukraine (Anand: We will work with our partners and allies to protect democracy and peace around the world), Michael Chong worried that the Biden administration was calling on other countries to increase oil production but not Canada, along with the usual concern around Keystone XL (Wilkinson: We raise these issues at every opportunity).

Alexandre Boulerice demanded an end to fossil fuel subsidies (Wilkinson: We have made an intensive effort to implement the necessary measures to reducing GHGs, and developing climate solutions), and Charlie Angus demanded clean energy investments with his usual trademarked sanctimony (Wilkinson: No country in the G20 has been as ambitious as ours for climate action, and we have allocated $100 billion toward it).

Round three saw questions on Huawei (Champagne: We will make no compromises on national security), First Nations on-reserve boil water advisories (Hajdu: We have been working on these advisories, and each community has their own particular challenges), clawbacks of GIS (Khera: We have supported seniors every step of the way, and on this issue we are working to find the right solution), the labour shortage in Quebec (Fraser: We are working with Quebec), other labour shortages (Qualtrough: Our strong economy is outpacing job creation, which is why we are investing in training and brining in more skilled immigrants), fertiliser limits (Bibeau: We are working with farmers and ensuring that they can do things like buy more energy-efficient equipment), impacts of aligning airport regulation with international standards (Alghabra: We have been working collaboratively with stakeholders in the aviation sector), support for expanding the nuclear industry (Wilkinson: In transition to a net-zero future, we must consider all non-emitting options including nuclear and are supporting the development of SMR technology), the work environment at Veterans Affairs (MacAulay: We have hired over 450 new case managers and will do more to help veterans), and a toxic waste facility (Murray: We will hold any individuals who violate these laws to account).

Overall, there were some good exchanges today between Erin O’Toole and Chrystia Freeland where she had him off-balance and sputtering about his supposed economic knowledge, but she unfortunately didn’t drive the point home at the end, and instead let it fade out with the non sequitur about the Economist‘s list of ten most expensive cities. She already had to school him on monetary policy versus fiscal policy and the Bank of Canada’s role in that when O’Toole stupidly demanded she order the Bank to return us to two percent inflation, and she should have gone further and asked him if he didn’t have confidence in the governor of the Bank given that they are targeting inflation but the transitory factors right now mean that it’s better to let it play itself out for the next few months rather than do something rash and damage the economic recovery by driving up interest rates. This should have been the kind of takedown that Freeland should have delivered, but once again did not. She was getting there, but needs to take the next step.

Otherwise, it was quite obvious today that the Conservatives decided to gang up on fisheries minister Joyce Murray and try to take her down, and Murray unfortunately acquit herself as well as she could or should have in the face of their questions. I will note that it is a bit of a change of topics than those they have been hammering on in recent days, and we (mercifully) were spared another round of Pierre Poilievre’s antics, so while the variety was welcome, it still remains a pretty unedifying exercise.

Sartorial speaking, snaps go out to Greg Fergus for a tailored navy suit with a light blue shirt and a navy bow tie, and to Kamal Khera for a three-quarter sleeved grey dress with a black lace-like pattern across it. Style citations go out to Anju Dhillon for a grey v-necked top with big pink florals, and to Dave Epp for a medium grey suit with a pale orange shirt and dark orange and grey striped tie.

One thought on “QP: What is your inflation position today?”

  1. Shame on the CBC for their both-sides framing of these exchanges on inflation as simply a “debate” on positions of equal merit, instead of Freeland doing her best to use facts to push back on leading/loaded questions from cons that are coming in bad faith. But it was a reason for Wherry (who usually delivers fair takes but appears to have gotten cynical and lazy as of late) to be the latest to get on board the pointless, drama-laden bandwagon of a fantasy Freeland vs. Poilievre leadership matchup.

    The media doesn’t have anything worthwhile to write about, so resorts to fanfic masquerading as “analysis” instead. I guess they were really disappointed that their breathless Carney Watch went nowhere, and there haven’t been all that many horse race polls to delve into now that Grenier quit the network. Here’s a poll for them to run with: Nearly two-thirds of respondents in a recent Abacus survey agree that Trudeau will lead the party in the next election, while only one third say that of O’Toole. So they should stop trying to make fetch happen, drop their speculation and report the facts as facts.

    I don’t care if the press is tired of Trudeau, and desperate to get an LPC leadership race going to distract from the will-they-or-won’t-they water torture of waiting on O’Toole’s fate. That’s no excuse to keep lending praise to the populist nonsense and attack upon expertise that is Pigeonomics, on grounds that he’s “effective” (in other words, an attention-seeking camera hog and a certified grade-A, A-hole). They’re doing to Freeland what they did to Hillary Clinton, casting her as “overprepared” while clapping for Skippy’s Trumpist nonsense. Why can’t they just report actual news or cover serious issues honestly? Both-sides “journalism” is an absolute blight upon democracy.

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