QP: Politicising a tragedy because of course he did

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For Wednesday, proto-PMQ day, the prime minister was indeed present, and had a binder full of prepared responses, not that he was going to need most of it given how utterly repetitive QP has become in the past number of weeks. Pierre Poilievre led off, and started with condolence for the murder of a police officer in Burnaby, BC, and wanted action on the “crime wave” gripping the country. Justin Trudeau agreed that they need to do more, and spoke about their plans to increase funding for mental health supports. Poilievre then moved to the inflation numbers, and food inflation in particular, accusing the government of raising taxes on food, which of course is not true, and the biggest driver of food price inflation is climate change. Trudeau disputed the characterisation, and raised their GST credit, and wanted support for their other measures. Poilievre cited the figure that average families will pay $3000 more in inflation and interest, and blamed inflation on deficits, which is not the driver. Trudeau repeated that the Conservatives are not supporting measures that will help the households that need it most. Poilievre repeated his questions in French, and Trudeau poked holes in Poilievre’s assertion that inflation is so high that they shouldn’t do anything to help people. Poilievre spouted a bunch of nonsense about food price inflation on things gown in Canada, ignoring that drought wiped out 40 percent of crops last year, and blamed the costs on carbon prices. Trudeau raised the climate rebates that people got on Friday, and that they need to take action on climate change.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and raised both the contracts for a lease near Roxham Road and wanted a better way to accept asylum seekers. Trudeau recited that there is no magic solution and that we need to work with the Americans to find a sustainable solution. Blanchet claimed that the government wanted to use Roxham Road to get cheap labour, and wanted African francophone students instead who are being discriminated against with their visas. Trudeau read a script about having no tolerance for racism and that the minister was looking into the issue.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and first gave condolences for the slain officer, then switched to French to accuse the government of doing nothing about inflation. Trudeau listed their actions and the plans still waiting passage. Singh switched to English, and blamed food price inflation on “greed-flation” (which is not a thing), and took credit for “forcing” the government to study the issue. Trudeau repeated his response about the GST credit and demanding support for dental care and rental supports.

Round two, and Jasraj Hallan blamed a number of non sequiturs on inflation and demanded a halt to carbon prices (Trudeau: You should support dental and rental supports), and complained about rent and housing prices (Trudeau: I’m having a hard time understanding your logic), Luc Berthold railed about food price inflation in French and mislead about carbon prices (Trudeau: We have proposed direct assistance to low-income families and it’s inexplicable that you won’t support it), and Leslyn Lewis blamed government spending on the cost of living crisis (Trudeau: Your preoccupation with the cost of living would be more believable if you weren’t standing in the way of our assistance measures).

Blanchet complained that the prime minster didn’t dialogue with the collection of far-right extremists, grifters, conspiracy theorists, and grievance tourists who were occupying Wellington Street in the winter with the intention of overthrowing the government (Trudeau: This was an illegal occupation and we took the action we needed), and continued with a word salad that didn’t make any consistent sense (Trudeau: We are focused on helping families).

Poilievre got back up to claim that ArriveCan could be created over a weekend (Trudeau: We were focused on providing support for people in the pandemic in spite of the political games the Conservatives played, and the figures are for more than development costs), and insisted that someone got rich over this app (Trudeau: We spent billions to support Canadians in this pandemic, and we did that because we knew being there for Canadians would allow our economy to rebound faster, and that’s what happened).

Singh was back up to cite a Jim Stanford report disagreeing with the Bank of Canada’s approach to inflation (Trudeau: We support strong and independent institutions and we will continue to defend their independence, unlike other parties on the other side of the aisle).

Round three saw questions on the supposed increase in violent crime (Trudeau: Moving backward on gun control won’t make communities safer), the contract at Roxham Road (Trudeau: Our asylum system is fair and solid), the false claim that Freeland was calling for more oil and gas exports (Trudeau: Canada is there to help the world energy crisis caused by Russia, and we are helping accelerate the transition to renewables), food price inflation (Trudeau: Support our measures; Our price on carbon returns more money to most families than they pay), housing needs in Nunavut (Trudeau: We are working in partnership with the premier and are making big investments), and funding disability supports before the next budget (Trudeau: There is much more to do, and we are moving forward).

Overall, it should not have been a surprise that Poilievre would try to politicise the death of that RMCP officer, but of course he did, because that’s what he does. Most of the day was pretty much a rerun of the rest of the week, with a couple of added framing questions about this morning’s inflation data, but read in a way that presents a false picture rather than dealing with the actual drivers (because we know the facts are terrible to carrying on their narrative). Poilievre also tried to grab onto that story about the app developer that cloned ArriveCan over a weekend and pretended that’s all it takes to develop an app that integrates with legacy government systems in a secure manner, wholly ignoring the other regulatory, legal, and compliance work that goes into the job, as well as the fact that the cited $54 million includes support, time in the CBSA call centre, and so on. Of course, Trudeau didn’t really explain all of this, but restored to some feel-good pabulum about having Canadians’ backs in the pandemic and a brief, vague mention about some of these costs without a frank explanation. Because, why communicate and show people the truth when you can give them pats on the head instead?

The other two leaders did not exactly cover themselves in glory today, as Yves-François Blanchet both inexplicably suggested that the government should have dialogued with the illegal occupiers who demanded democracy be overturned, before he devolved into a strange mash-up of every single talking point including some nonsense about the oath to the King, which blunted his salient point about the systemic racism in the immigration department that won’t grant these student visas. As for Jagmeet Singh, his going after the Bank of Canada, as though the prime minister was going to weigh in, was kind of embarrassing and indicative that he really doesn’t have an idea how government works. Of course, that’s not a big surprise, but it’s cringe-worthy when it plays out like this.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Eric Melillo for a tailored dark blue suit with a crisp white shirt and a pink tie, and to Mélanie Joly for a lavender jacket over a black top and slacks. Style citations go out to Patty Hajdu for a black dress with giant red and pink florals, and to Martin Shields for a tan jacket over a black plaid shirt and a black and red patterned tie.

3 thoughts on “QP: Politicising a tragedy because of course he did”

  1. Reading your reports on these goings-on is like Groundhog Day. The same thing over and over and over……..I am losing any faith I ever had that any of them are actually trying to enact improvements for our country.

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