QP: Still on repeat, again and again

Posted on by

While Justin Trudeau was isolating, he had once again pledged to appear by Zoom, and lo, he did, and all of the other leaders were present as well. Candice Bergen led off, her script in front of her, and she raised Bill Blair’s testimony at committee yesterday, insisting that this was a contradiction to what Marco Mendicino had previously said. (Not really, because apparently there is no room for nuance in politics). She insisted that Mendicino was “misleading” Canadians and demanded his removal from the portfolio. Justin Trudeau reminded her that police do not give themselves emergency powers, that the government does, and that these measures were debated and voted upon in the House of Commons after police and municipalities said they needed more tools to end the occupation and blockades. Bergen listed the supposed misinformation that led to the invocation, torquing what was actually stated at the time and in the confusion of the events. Trudeau noted that the Bergen and the Conservatives were scrambling to make people forget their support for the occupation. Bergen insisted that Mendicino must be covering for the prime minister’s problems, which makes no sense, but nevertheless Trudeau noted the job losses and factories being closed as a result of the occupation and the other blockades at borders. Bergen went off on a tangent about Trudeau supposedly firing strong women who stand up to him but keeping weak ministers (and had Chrystia Freeland been in attendance, I would have been curious to see her gestures in response), and Trudeau reiterated that the Conservatives were trying to cover that they were in the wrong. Bergen tried to extend that tangent, bringing up other weak ministers like Harjit Sajjan, and Trudeau repeated his asserting that this was about the Conservatives deflection from being on the wrong side.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and he too insisted that Mendicino had misled Parliament because police did not request the Emergencies Act, and Trudeau reminded him that police don’t request powers and that it is up to governments to make those decisions, which they did after police said they needed new tools. Blanchet reiterated that someone wasn’t telling the truth, and Trudeau repeated his response.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the Bloc, reciting dubious statistics about how inflation is hurting Canadians, and insisted that the government was refusing to give direct support to families who need it. Trudeau suggested he talk to families who had their childcare costs cut in half thanks to federal intervention, and that the indexed benefits would be rolling out in weeks. Singh repeated his question in French, demanding support for their proposal to increase the GST credit and Canada Child Benefit, and Trudeau said that he CCB was already going up in weeks because of indexing. 

Round two, and Luc Berthold shouted something about ministerial responsibility that didn’t quite make sense (Trudeau: Police asked us for more tools, so we invoked the Act in a restrained and responsible fashion while your party supported the blockade) and demanded Mendicino’s resignation (Trudeau: You are desperate to distract people from your role in the blockades), Stephanie Kusie was confused between consultation and recommendations (Trudeau: Police asked for tools, and we did it in a proportional and reasonable way), and Blaine Calkins gave more of the same (Trudeau: Same answer).

Alain Therrien complained of lineups at airports because of missing border services agents (Trudeau: This is happening around the world, have hired new employees at passport offices and investing in airports facing labour shortages), and he listed other Cabinet ministers he deemed to be failing, and then said Trudeau should deal with rather than meddling in Quebec (Trudeau: I am here for all Canadians, including Quebeckers).

Kerry-Lynne Findlay demanded Mendicino’s resignation (Trudeau: It’s amazing the lengths the Conservatives will go to do deflect from the fact that they stood with the occupiers), and Dominique Vien gave the same in French (Trudeau: Same answer).

Singh was back up, and demanded higher wages for airport employees (Trudeau: Staffing shortages are happening not only in Canada, but around the world, and we have invested in hiring more staff for CBSA and passport offices), and repeated the demand in French (Trudeau: Same answer en français).

Round three saw yet more demands for Menicino’s resignation (Trudeau: Yet more iterations of the same response), plus questions on GHG reduction targets (Trudeau: Here are environmental groups who support our plan), inadequate spending on Indigenous women facing domestic violence (Trudeau: That isn’t true, and we have been supporting front-line groups), and “tax cascading” on gasoline (Trudeau: We have made investments in supporting families and the vulnerable).

Overall, it was another overly repetitive day of clip-gathering, with the only notable exchange being the fact that Pierre Poilievre was granted a spot to do his theatrical shtick. More to the point they cleared a place for him on the front bench (his assigned seat is officially in the nosebleeds as a leadership candidate, but assigned seating apparently has ceased to matter in hybrid sittings, which is bullshit), and there was a commotion as a number of his supporters in the caucus all moved to be around him in the camera shot, and then made a commotion in cheering for him. It was a lot of nonsense that will serve Poilievre in gathering clips for his campaign to use (which, again, is why leadership candidates generally don’t get to use QP for that purpose). It is also very curious to see what the leadership team has allowed their sitting leadership candidates to use these rare QP spots for, such as Leslyn Lewis using it to push her WHO conspiracy theory. But really, today was another waste of everyone’s time, so good work there, guys.

Sartorial speaking, snaps go out to Peter Fragiskatos for a dark grey three-piece suit with a lavender shirt and purple tie and pocket square, and to Tracy Gray for a navy jacket and skirt over a purple-toned paisley top. Style citations go out to Patty Hajdu for a black dress with wizard sleeves and giant red and pink florals, and to Alex Ruff for a taupe shirt and jacket with medium-grey slacks and a black tie. Dishonourable mention goes out to Kelly Block for a half-sleeved dress with yellow, gold, black and grey stripes in random triangular blocks.

One thought on “QP: Still on repeat, again and again”

  1. > Bergen went off on a tangent about Trudeau supposedly firing strong women who stand up to him but keeping weak ministers (and had Chrystia Freeland been in attendance, I would have been curious to see her gestures in response)

    I think I know what gesture would be fitting to such an occasion. Wonder if her boss has given her the green light to use the Trudeau-trademarked Fuddle Duddle Salute.

Comments are closed.