QP: Shouting about the Bank of Canada’s mandate

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Less than two hours after the prime minister announced that Canada would be engaging in a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics, he was present along with his deputy for QP. Erin O’Toole led off, script in front of him, and he lamented that there was no decision on Huawei and that Canada was the “last one” to announce the diplomatic boycott of the Olympics. Justin Trudeau have a paean about standing up for human rights and doing what is right. O’Toole then pivoted to uninsured mortgages and worried that interest rates would soon be rising and blamed the government for letting inflation run rampant—which doesn’t make any sense because rates were going to go up anyway and they are unnaturally low and them rising toward a neutral range would be a good thing. Trudeau reminded him that they had a plan around housing while the Conservatives only promised a tax break for landlords. O’Toole railed about inflation and demanded the government mandate the Bank of Canada maintain the Bank of Canada’s two percent inflation target, and Trudeau said they would renew it and then pointed that the Conservatives plans did nothing for affordability. O’Toole started yelling about inflation, and Trudeau shrugged this off as flailing. O’Toole switched to French to ask again that they renew the Bank’s inflation target, and this time Trudeau said that an announcement was forthcoming. 

Yves-François Blanchet rose for the Bloc, and he complained that border measures were too confusing, and Trudeau said that he understood that the new rules could be confusing but they were doing everything they could to keep Canadians safe. Blanchet gave a hypothetical travel plan and wondered to know what tests or constraints they would be subjected to, and Trudeau said that anyone travelling should consult with public health authorities, but they needed to protect Canadians. 

Jagmeet Singh led for the NDP, and he complained about housing and claimed the government has to tools to solve it — erm, except nothing immediately short of a Green Lantern ring. Trudeau praised the efforts that the government has been taken and are expanding. Singh complained in French that the government wasn’t building housing on federal lands in Montreal and accused Trudeau of giving it to a member of the Bronfman family. Trudeau lamented that he expected personal attacks from the Conservatives but not the NDP, before talking about partnering with Montreal.

Round two, and Dominique Vien misconstrued the Bank of Canada’s actions (Trudeau: The current mandate is two percent, and an announcement is coming shortly, but we are doing all these things for affordability; the Bank of Canada is independent and must remain independent from politics), and John Barlow complained that PEI potato farmers were being ignored, and misconstrued the situation entirely (Trudeau: Are you proposing that we allow the Americans issue a ban rather than keep control of the situation?; You are too busy throwing mud to understand what the real issue is; Your previous advice in dealing with Americans has been to cave, which we refused to do).

Kristina Michaud complained that the government eliminating mandatory minimums on certain gun crimes would not tackle gun crime—never mind that mandatory minimums are proven ineffective (Trudeau: Read off a list of investments to fight gun smuggling and violence), Rhéal Fortin repeated the same complaint (Trudeau: We are taking concrete actions to combat gun crime).

Michelle Rempel Garner talked around the Bank of Canada’s inflation mandate (Trudeau: You know full well that the mandate is currently two percent, and we will renewing in the coming days or weeks; Your party has been misrepresentation the inflation situation, which is related to the pandemic and global supply chains).

Singh was back up to worry that young people don’t think they will ever be able to own a home (Trudeau: We are doing all of these measures to help Canadians), and he listed measures that would tinker around the margins (Trudeau: You listed three initiatives from our platform that we will be delivering on).

Round three saw questions on inflation, complete with hyperbole and disinformation (Trudeau: We have always had Canadians’ backs; Your only plan was a tax break for landlords), gun control (Trudeau: C-5 will reduce crime and will deal with structural racism which the Bloc doesn’t recognise; Here is a list of actions we have taken to combat gun violence), O’Toole got back up to again demand he tell the Bank of Canada to get inflation back to two percent (Trudeau: We are working to increase housing supply, and you know that their mandate is to keep inflation at two percent), quarantine hotel issues (Trudeau: We have to implement measures even if they are difficult or complex to protect Canadians), Jagmeet Singh demanded the urgent construction of new houses (Trudeau: Here are things we are doing to help Canadians), and creating a national network of rail and bus service (Trudeau: We have put forward historic amounts toward public transit).

Overall, it was a strange and frustrating day because of the complete lack of coherence around the myriad of questions about the Bank of Canada and its mandate. The questions around the renewal of the two percent inflation mandate (which isn’t really a two percent mandate—the mandate is to control inflation between one and three percent with two percent being the average) were frequently incoherent and nonsensical, and completely ignored everything the Bank has been saying about the current spike inflation and why raising interest rates right now to control transitory factors would do broader harm to the economy while it’s still in a fragile state of recovery. And while Trudeau did push back on this selectively, whether it was reminding the Conservatives that the causes of this inflation are related to the pandemic and the global supply chains, or that the Bank is independent from political decision-making, he wasn’t forceful enough in driving these points home, or in relaying the Bank’s decision-making and what they have stated in their Monetary Policy Report, so that Canadians can understand what is going on. Because when they don’t explain, the Conservatives fill the space with disinformation.

Meanwhile, the Bloc have taken the completely distasteful approach to Bill C-5, which reduces the number of mandatory minimum sentences, and using the “soft on crime” wedge and claiming that reducing these sentences will send the wrong message around the spate of gun crime happening around Montreal. Mandatory minimums don’t work—everyone knows it, but populism makes these kinds of boneheaded demands de rigeur in the course of debate. It’s disappointing that the Bloc decided to engage in this particular kind of crass politicking rather than being constructive on the issue.

Sartorial speaking, snaps go out to Pascale St-Onge for a medium grey suit with no lapels on the jacket over a white scoop-necked top, and to Terry Beech for a navy suit with a white shirt, reddish-purple tie and reddish-pink pocket square. Style citations go out to Darren Fisher for a brown corduroy jacket with a grey shirt and orange tie, and to Mona Fortier for a black dress with bright pink florals under a black jacket.

3 thoughts on “QP: Shouting about the Bank of Canada’s mandate”

  1. Oh great, a week after tinfoil Tory Twitter was all agog over a fake and libelous meme alleging Trudeau to have been an Epstein client, now the NDP has joined in the QAnon tripe about the Bronfman family? Funny how their “reply guys” get really mad when Liberal fact-checkers (impugned as so-called TruAnons) call them out for spreading fact-averse, ad hominem nonsense and populist conspiracy theories that make them sound identical to the cons. They already gladly amplify Kremlin disinfo about Freeland’s “Na zi grandfather,” who the right-wing chuds believe to be George Soros.

    The NDP are not a serious party and they deserve to be ignored. But I’m sure it won’t be long now before they go full Corbynista and turn the already inane inflation “debate” into dog-whistling about the (((banker elites))). There used to be a theory that if you played a Beatles record backwards you could hear the devil say that Paul is dead. If you play a Jagmeet Singh diatribe at 1.5x speed, does he sound like Pigeon Poilievre?

  3. “Trudeau: Read off a list of investments to fight gun smuggling…”

    I understand why politicians prefer to have expenditures called “investments,” even when they aren’t. But, make no mistake, it’s a con when they do so. What is doubly discouraging is that for years now journalists have allowed themselves to be part of the con by dutifully misreporting expenditures as investments.

    I get that illiteracy in terms of finance and economics is rampant in Canada. However, when journalists are too lazy or to ignorant to correct the distortions of politicians, they are every bit as guilty of spreading disinformation as any political huckster.

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