QP: Is it federal hostage-taking, or provincial?

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As Trudeau was at the G20 summit in Bali, his deputy was present for QP once again. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, as he usually does, and he decried the crisis of families trying to pay for home heating, citing that Acadians on the East Coast and Franco-Ontarians in Northern Ontario use diesel (because he wanted to address francophones not in Quebec as Quebec has a cap-and-trade system), which are being impacted by the so-called “triple, triple, triple” carbon price (which isn’t not until 2030). Chrystia Freeland insisted that her economic plan was responsible and caring at the same time, such as doubling the GST credit and the rental support for low-income people. Poilievre switched to English to denounce that Freeland boasted about not needing a car because she lives in downtown Toronto, and denounced the supposed tripling of the carbon price. Freeland responded that she has probably driven more pick-up trucks than Poilievre has, and began laying into his advice about investing in crypto, and demanded he apologies to Canadians. Poilievre decried $3/litre diesel, and what that will cost people who need it for heating, and demanded the carbon price be cancelled. Freeland insisted that the Conservatives only want to eviscerate EI, pensions, making polluting free, and to claw back climate incentive cheques, or depriving low-income people of rental supports or dental care. Poilievre retorted “false, false, false, false,” and then misquoted the PBO’s report on carbon prices, and repeated his demand to cancel the price. Freeland took the opportunity to read a script about what the Conservatives are “blocking” in the budget implementation bill. Poilievre insisted that they have a majority with the NDP, so they can do what they like, then blamed them for rising house prices before repeating his “triple” ear worm. Freeland slowly recited that they have a plan that is compassionate and fiscally responsible, citing items like ending interest on student loans and the changes to the Canada Worker Benefit.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and accused the government of encouraging the anglicisation of Quebec through their official languages bill. Freeland said that while she is an anglophone, the government considers French a priority, supporting them to keep speaking French on an English continent. Therrien railed that companies like Air Canada and VIA Rail continue to flout their obligations and are trying to avoid Quebec’s language laws, and Freeland insisted that they do understand how hard it is to protect the French language but they support doing so.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and in French, he raised the crisis in emergency rooms, and accuse the federal government of inaction, as though it was their jurisdiction to do so. Freeland insisted that she was sure that every member in the Chamber understand how precious children are, and insisted that they are a priority, and that as for healthcare, they have are increasing transfers by eight percent. Singh repeated the question in English and got the same answer.

Round two, and Jasraj Hallan made some tortured Disney+ references, and then some disinformation about carbon prices (Freeland: What is out of touch is to tell Canadians to invest in crypto), Leslyn Lewis complained about the cancelled Lake Erie connector project and accused the government of wasting taxpayer dollars on it (LeBlanc: They didn’t believe there was a role for the Infrastructure Bank for things like green energy but we will prioritise these investments), and some nonsense about inflation and carbon prices (Freeland: Let me quote the Globe and Mail), and Gérard Deltell accused the government of tripling the carbon price (Gould: If you want to leave money in the pockets of Canadians, stop voting against our measures to help), and needled that the government ranks 58 out of 63 on climate performance, as though his party didn’t do the work of sabotaging any efforts (Rodriguez: There are limits as to how much you can contradict yourselves, but they fight our measures and say we are not doing enough).

Luc Thériault rises the emergency room situation and demanded higher transfer payments without any strings (van Koeverden: We obtained supplies of children’s Tylenol to help with the situation), and Mario Simard repeated the demand for higher transfers (van Koeverden: We went over $72 billion over the pandemic, and transfers are going up next year), and accused the federal government of “taking hostages” with healthcare and infrastructure (LeBlanc: The Bloc are looking to pick fights where none exist).

Michael Chong demanded to know who the eleven candidates were that got Chinese money in 2019 (Damoff: The point of this interference is to sow chaos, and there are investigations ongoing; LeBlanc: We appreciate their recent conversion to concern about foreign interference, which is why we set up a non-partisan panel to monitor the situation), and Luc Berthold repeated the demand in French (Damoff: We are not taking this for granted and will protect democracy; Champagne: We take national security very seriously).

Lori Idlout rise the Auditor General’s report on emergency preparation for First Nations communities (Hajdu: We are spending extraordinary amounts of money on this, and she pointed out that we can save money through better preparation, and we need to have adaptation strategies), and Jenny Kwan railed about the Auditor General’s report on chronic homelessness (Hussen: Our programmes prevented more homelessness and we accept the AG’s recommendations).

Round three saw questions on carbon prices (Duguid: Eight out of ten families are better off under our system; Freeland: What is cruel is to tell people anxious about inflation to buy crypto), food price inflation and beer taxes (Gould: You could have supported Canadians in need but voted against it), carbon prices on farms (Fraser: Farmers in my riding are telling me how expensive it is to deal with inaction on climate change), the situation of the Uyghurs (Oliphant: We have condemned China at every opportunity, and we will continue to stand with the Uyghur people), ArriveCan documents (Damoff: CBSA is aware of errors in their disclosure and are making corrections), government spending (Freeland: Our Aaa credit rating has been reaffirmed), carbon prices affecting food production (Duguid: What about the effect that climate change has on agricultural production with droughts or floods in BC), creating a national public drug manufacturer (van Koeverden: We secured imported supplies; Champagne: We now have vaccine manufacturers locating in Canada).

Overall, it was another day of mind-numbing talking points, between the carbon price nonsense, the unclever Disney+ swipes, and the demands that Poilievre apologies for advising people to invest in crypto, and it just grinds a person down to keep listening to it. And once again, on a day when the Auditor General released a series of reports that were unflattering to the government, those reports weren’t even mentioned until the end of the second round when the NDP raised them, and that was it. This is the kind of thing that QP should be focused on, and yet it goes virtually unnoticed because they’re too busy trying to get the clips they want for social media channel rather than doing the jobs they’re supposed to be doing.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Maninder Sidhu for a dark grey suit with a white shirt and a dark pink tie, and to Melissa Lantsman for a dark brown jacket with a grid pattern over a white top and black slacks. Style citations go out to Pam Damoff for a black top with burgundy and gold florals, and a pussy bow, over black slacks, and to Alain Therrien for a blue-grey jacket over a white shirt, light blue tie and blue jeans. Dishonourable mention goes out to Julie Vignola for her dark yellow jacket over a white top and black slacks.