QP: Theatrical accusations of breaking Canada

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With the PM still in Bali, his deputy was present, though it was unlikely that she was going to take on the usual proto-PMQ practice of the PM taking every Wednesday question. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and he wondered why children in other countries could get access to pain medications but not Canada, and accused the government of inaction when there were warning signs in April. Freeland said that as a mother she understood the stress that families were going through, which was why the government announced a supply of additional medications from abroad. Poilievre repeated the question in English, with the added question of what date the Cabinet was aware of the shortages, but Freeland repeated her same response in her slow and deliberate style as she read the script in front of her. Poilievre turns back to French, somewhat unusually, and raised the inflation numbers that were released earlier, and blamed it on the so-called “triple, triple, triple” carbon price, which is of course not accurate. Freeland started off in English, saying that the only thing that has tripled was our Aaa credit rating, before switching to French to note how inflation stabilised. Poilievre was back in English to be dismissive, noted that heating oil costs were up over 70 percent in Newfoundland and Labrador, and gave his usual demands. Freeland noted that the people who are broke are those who followed Poilievre’s advice about crypto. Poilievre spouted a bunch of nonsense about the threat of deflation (which was real, which could have spiralled into a depression), and made some jibes about Disney+. Freeland responded that Poilievre lives in a nineteen-room mansion with a chef and a driver, and that while this is fine for the leader of the opposition, he was irresponsible in advising people to invest in crypto. 

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, raised the federal debt position relative to the provinces, and demanded higher transfers to provinces. Freeland noted that transfers had increased by 4.8 this year, and that any other increased funding must come with accountability. Therrien insisted that people were suffering and blamed the federal government for under-funding the system, and Freeland agreed that there were real challenges in the system, and that Quebec got $10.1 billion this year, which was the 4.8 percent increase.

Peter Julian rose for the NDP in French, and denounced grocery CEOs and the Bank of Canada while demanding those grocery chains pay more taxes. Freeland read the approved lines about increasing corporate taxes, the recovery dividend, and luxury taxes. Daniel Blaikie took over in English to demand government intervention in the way of windfall taxes, and Freeland repeated the same points in English.

Round two, and Jasraj Hallan and he gave a false reading of food price inflation and demanded and end to carbon prices  (Gould: He is wrong as there is no tripling of taxes, and you voted against supports for families), and accused Cabinet members of breaking their files and the prime minster of breaking Canada (Gould: You voted against supports), Melissa Lantsman insisted that the government didn’t live in the real world before she demanded the carbon price be cut (Boissonnault: What about the heat dome two years ago, or the atmospheric river last year, and a carbon price is the best mechanism to combat climate change; Duguid: Remember when Lytton, BC, burned to the ground, and you need to stop your “triple, triple, triple” schtick), and Pierre Paul-Hus insisted that businesses don’t want higher carbon prices (Virani: We are supporting small businesses by reducing credit card fees and other means; We are taxing share buybacks to businesses will invest).

Mario Beaulieu denounced Air Canada for opting out of Quebec’s language laws (Serré: The Bloc and the Conservatives are spreading misinformation about C-13), and accused the Liberals and NDP of “scheming” to anglicise Quebec (Serré: Same answer).

Michael Chong demanded to know which candidates received Chinese funds in 2019 (Damoff: Any foreign interference is a threat to our democracy and we need to stand together, because its only purpose is to sow chaos), and Luc Berthold tried again in French (Champagne: We need to stick to the facts, and it’s dangerous to politicise an issue like this).

Matthew Green decried the state of emergency rooms for children (van Koeverden: We must do more, and it’s a bad flu season, and we should all be protecting those around us with vaccines—but didn’t mention masks, though he was wearing one), and Laurel Collins denounced the government’s climate record (Duguid: The report doesn’t cite our most recent actions, and we have an ambitious plan).

Round three saw questions on carbon prices (Duguid: The PBO has certified that eight out of ten families get more back, and that climate change is costing our economy $20 billion per year and will get worse; Fraser: You have a contradictory message on climate and keep voting against helping Canadians), the housing crisis versus bonuses for CMHC (Hussen: You know that we don’t determine the compensation for an independent Crown Corporation, and your leader is a gatekeeper against housing supports), offshore oil investments (Dabrusin: The tendering process does not allow production in the offshore sector, and all requests are subject to an environmental assessment and the net-zero plan), so-called “inflationary taxes” (Boissonault: While your leader told people to invest in crypto, we have a compassionate approach; Gould: Just because Conservatives repeat something three times it doesn’t make it true, our inflation is lower than many other countries and we are supporting those who need it), carbon prices in winter (Boissonnault: You voted against our tax cuts; Holland: There is the existential crisis of climate change and inflation, we are below our comparator countries, and you shouldn’t raise anxiety and this demands maturity), support for a bill on RCMP independence (Damoff: We hope to work together), and copycat pot edibles (van Koeverden: The legislation provides a flexible framework to enforce the law).

Overall, there was little changed today from every other day this week in terms of the quality of questions and responses, but I would like to take a moment to wonder if Jasraj Hallan has been attending the same drama camp as Stephanie Kusie, because his little rant about the government “breaking Canada” today was so overwrought and ridiculous that I’m surprised he didn’t start the waterworks to go with it. And if anything, this was only matched by Mark Holland apparently losing patience toward the end of the third round when he started getting up and delivering his now trademarked sanctimony about not trying to raise people’s anxiety levels and behaving more maturely. I mean, he’s not entirely wrong, but his delivery starts getting pretty eye-rolling. 

This being said, we had a few more instances of the government pushing back against some of the false narratives—Karina Gould stated clearly there is no tripling of taxes, and Terry Duguid made a couple of pointed references to effects of climate change, and calling on the Conservatives to knock off their “triple, triple, triple” schtick. But for everyone else simply retorting “You told people to invest in crypto” is not necessarily a helpful or clever response, and it makes it look like the government itself is acting childish when they should be trying to be the grown-ups in the room.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Dominique Vien for a long grey jacket with a black chain link pattern over a black top and slacks, and to Eric Melillo for a tailored grey suit with a white shirt and a dark blue tie. Style citations go out to Colin Carrie for a dark grey jacket with subtle vertical stripes, a lavender shirt and purple tie over blue jeans, and to Kamal Khera for a dark green long-sleeved top with foliage and floral patterns, over black slacks.