QP: Getting shouty to build their narratives

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It being Wednesday, the benches were largely full, and the prime minister was present for his designated day to answer everything. Pierre Poilievre led off partly in French, and worried about the shortage of children’s Tylenol, and switched to English halfway through to reiterate. Justin Trudeau started talking about Health Canada taking action and there were challenges to supply chains around the world, but was shouted down and needed to reiterate his answer when it quieted down. Poilievre then moved onto his bog standard inflationary nonsense and “triple, triple, triple” ear worm, and demanded that tomorrow’s fiscal update have a spending freeze. Trudeau noted that they have supports for Canadians as the GST rebate comes out on days, and other supports are on the way. Poilievre repeated his question in French, and Trudeau noted that the Conservatives only want austerity and cuts. Poilievre returned to English to claim only he was protecting pensions from inflation, and repeated his demand to cap spending and taxes. Trudeau called Conservatives cold-hearted if they considered dental care for children to be pouring fuel on the inflationary fire. Poilievre tried to turn over the “cold-hearted” accusation with his tripling nonsense, to which Trudeau reiterated that in spite of Conservative misinformation and disinformation, the climate rebates give more back to most Canadians than they pay.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and he accused the federal government of starving the healthcare system (which is utter bunkum), and wanted more funding without conditions. Trudeau reminded him that Quebeckers and Canadians expect results from the system, but if systems don’t work as expected, they want to work with provinces to ensure that more money gets better results. Blanchet accused the federal government of micromanaging, and Trudeau reiterate that the systems are not working, which is why they are trying to get provinces onside to improve things for that money.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and he attacked Doug Ford’s preemptive use of the Notwithstanding Clause, and demanded the prime minster do something about it. Trudeau denounced Ford’s actions, and called out Poilievre for not denouncing it. Singh repeated the question in French, and got the same answer.

Round two, and Jasraj Hallan accused the “Liberal-caused interest hikes” was driving immigrants out of the country (Trudeau: We are planning to bring in even more immigrants to meet the needs of Canadians), Mark Strahl accused the government of raising taxes that means they can’t buy groceries—which his nonsense (Trudeau: Conservatives propose cuts, while we are helping those who need it), and Gérard Deltell quoted the food bank stats in French (Trudeau: We can see how global inflation is hurting families, so we are helping with supports that allowed two million people to leave poverty, which the Conservatives opposed).

Blanchet got back up to complain that the health ministers’ meeting as after the fall economic update (Trudeau: The solution is not just spending more money, and we will spend more, but we need to collaborate).

Poilievre got back up to demand to know who stayed in the $6000 hotel room during the “luxury vacation” also known as the Queen’s funeral (Trudeau: You keep focusing on me while you don’t stand up for people), Poilievre tried to use this as an admission he stayed in the room (Trudeau: You’re just playing rhetorical games, and you should denounce Ford’s preemptive use of the Notwithstanding Clause), and Poilievre accused Trudeau of robbing paycheques with his inflation, and blatantly lied about what Tiff Macklem said about employee pay (Trudeau: Why won’t you stand up for the fundamental rights of workers?).

Singh got back up to demand a windfall profit tax to pay Canadians’ energy bills (Trudeau: The climate rebates put more back in most households’ pockets and sends price signals to industry on the need to decarbonise), and then went to bat for the premiers who are underfunding healthcare systems (Trudeau: Canadians want access to to doctors, and you can’t just put money into a broken system and expect better results).

Round three saw questions on so-called tax increases (Trudeau: How would your constituents feel about hearing you call supports for low-income people “inflationary”?; Conservatives need to stop with the misinformation and disinformation about carbon prices), the assertion that federal standards are micromanaging (Trudeau: We need to make sure that any new health money comes with actual improvements), the national sex-offender registry (Trudeau, with script: The Conservatives’ tough-on-crime legislation keeps getting struck down, so we will not follow your advice but will find a way that stands up in court), the bill on eliminating certain mandatory minimums (Trudeau: That bill will increase maximum sentences for the worst offenders), shortages of children’s Tylenol (Trudeau: Health Canada is in contact with the manufacturers and pharmacies), increasing interim funding for Indigenous housing (Trudeau: We have put forward record amounts), eliminating all subsidies to oil and gas companies and replacing it with a windfall tax (Trudeau: We are ahead of our commitment to eliminate those subsidies).

Overall, it was a far punchier day, but one where both Justin Trudeau and Pierre Poilievre were talking past one another to build their own narratives, particularly around the cost of the hotel rooms during the Queen’s funeral versus Trudeau trying to call Poilievre out over Doug Ford’s preemptive use of the Notwithstanding Clause. We’re seeing these kinds of exchanges a little more often on Wednesdays, and Poilievre is getting Trudeau far more worked up than any of his predecessors have been, but it also could be because Poilievre is that much more shameless in everything he says. And there were a lot of utterly shameless lies being spouted today, some of which went completely unchallenged, though Trudeau did at points call out the “misinformation and disinformation” about carbon prices in particular, though not about most of the other things. He continued to be better on questions about healthcare funding and not throwing money at a broken system, but even with these moderate improvements in responses, we are still mired in bromides and Trudeau patting himself on the back for pandemic supports, which I continue to insist will bite him in the ass before long.

Otherwise, the Conservatives started a new talking point today, both in Members’ statements and in framing their own questions, which was that “for years,” Poilievre had been warning about high spending and inflation, which is both revisionist history and bunk economics. What caused this current bout of inflation had nothing to do with deficit spending (which was minimal considering both the size of our economy and the declining debt-to-GDP ratio), but Poilievre is now trying to cast himself as some kind of Cassandra, which is a really weird stance to take.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Peter Fragiskatos for a dark grey three-piece suit with a crisp white shirt and a purple tie and pocket square, and to Julie Dzerowicz for a light grey jacket over a black v-necked top and skirt (I think). Style citations go out to Pam Damoff for an orange jacket over a black dress with orange florals, and to Eric Melillo for a moss green suit with a white shirt and yellow tie.

One thought on “QP: Getting shouty to build their narratives”

  1. Singh has joined Poilievre in a tie for who is the stupidest MP in Ottawa. Both want to be Prime Minister but the first can’t keep the country’s jurisdictions straight and the second speaks in the belief that Canadians are dumber than he is.
    Woe is us! By the time the next election rolls around Trudeau will look like a genius not because of merit but through default.
    All good things come to those who wait.

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