The prime minister was in Bangkok for the APEC summit, while his deputy was present for a fourth showdown with Pierre Poilievre in a row. Poilievre led off in French, he raised the story that CSIS warned the prime minister ten months ago of attempted Chinese interference in the 2019 election, and switched to English to repeat the allegation and wondered if this was raised with the Chief Electoral Officer. In French, Chrystia Freeland says they know that there are dictators trying to undermine democracies, and she had experience with the Soviet Union so she has no illusions, and that national security agencies are monitoring threats. Poilievre then raised the COP27 conference, trotted out his tired line that the government doesn’t have a climate plan but a tax plan (*drink!*) and given that a report ranks Canada out of 63 countries on their climate performance, then recited his “triple, triple, triple” ear worm, and demanded the government cancel the carbon price and come up with a “real” climate plan (and it’s hard to believe that he didn’t choke on number the utter disingenuous things said in those thirty seconds). Freeland said that Canadians know that the Conservatives don’t have a plan to tackle climate change, which means he doesn’t have a plan to grow the economy, because our trading partners are all taking serious climate action, and then pointed to the investments in the green transition. Poilievre insisted that those allies and trading partners have better climate performance while Canada is merely raising “taxes” on heating that people need (never mind that the world price of oil has more to do with those increases than carbon pricing). Freeland responded that putting a price on carbon is the most effective way to fight climate change, and that Preston Manning recognised this, and that the carbon price is revenue neutral. Poilievre disputed the revenue neutrality based on a false reading of a PBO report and demanded the government waive carbon prices to make LNG plants economical, and Freeland noted that they recognise that LNG is an important transition fuel, but all projects need to pass assessments and get First Nations approval. Poilievre insisted that the former government had a real environmental assssment plan (they didn’t), and that these projects give benefits to First Nations and quoted a single Indigenous grandmother to prove his point. Freeland responded with an anecdote from a crypto bro who said that central banks are slavery and need to be burned down and that Poilievre appeared on his YouTube channel to say that he had good ideas, and she wanted an apology for that.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and he lamented that provinces weren’t getting enough healthcare dollars from the federal government, and Freeland told him she just spoke with Quebec’s finance minister and pointed out how much higher transfers are this year. Blanchet insisted that the federal government doesn’t have any expertise and just demanded money, and Freeland repeated that the transfer increased 4.2 percent this year, plus other funds to help with delays and diagnoses.

Peter Julian led for the NDP, and in French, he decried wait times in ERs, as though this was something the federal government has any control over. Freeland reiterated that they are increasing transfers to provinces already this year, and that the increasing funding must come with results. Lindsay Mathyssen repeated the concern in English, but with a London, Ontario, spin and Freeland repeated her response.

Round two, and Jasraj Hallan accused the government of manufacturing inflation and demanded they not “triple, triple, triple” their carbon price (Freeland: Inflation has come down and stabilised, and we put forward a responsible plan for those who need it; Your leader advised people to use crypto to combat inflation, and do you agree with your leader on that crypto bro?), Stephanie Kusie dramatically read a script about carbon prices (Freeland: The proof of our responsible plan comes from our Aaa rating from Moody’s; Fraser: What you call reckless spending we call support for Canadians at a time of need), and Richard Martel equated food insecurity to government spending, which is beyond a stretch (Rodriguez: Remember when you guys were in government and made cuts to programs people need?)

Stephanie Kusie railed about the prime minister spending a weekend in London, and neglects to mention that IT WAS FOR THE QUEEN’S FUNERAL! #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) November 17, 2022

Kristina Michaud complained that Canada ranked 58 out of 63 on an environmental poll (Duguid: That report didn’t include our recent measures and we are doing even more; Dabrusin:  In a carbon neutral world, we will still need oil for certain things, but the tendering process does not create emissions, and exploration is not exploitation), and Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe demanded to know if the government would avoid sending a diplomatic presence to the World Cup in Qatar (van Koeverden: We are focused on a constructive approach).

Michael Cooper demanded to know if the prime minister reported the allegations of Chinese interference was referred to Elections Canada (Damoff: A panel determined that no interference occurred, and you shouldn’t politicise this issue), and Luc Berthold repeated the question in French (Champagne: Everyone in this House should stand up to protect democracy, and partisan politics has no role to play).

Bonita Zarrillo accused the government of being missing in action on climate resilient infrastructure (Duguid: We are concerned and we have invested $4 billion to date, and our climate adaptation is on the way), and Lisa Marie Barron demanded an end to fish farms on the west coast (Murray: The transition is underway, and have already removed several farms, with a full plan on the way by June).

Round three saw questions on carbon prices affecting truckers (Alghabra: Our supply chains have been impacted and we are taking action, and the trucking industry was disappointed the Conservatives supported the illegal occupation), inflation (Freeland: We will not apologise for the compassionate support for those who need it, while being fiscally responsible; Fraser: The economic argument the Conservatives make is self-defeating, saying people need more support but opposing them), infrastructure funding for Quebec (Fisher: Other provinces had no problem submitting their plans; Rodriguez: We collaborate well with Quebec), Bill C-5 in the Senate (Lametti: If will be a historic day where we turn the page on failed policies that only serve to over-incarcerate Indigenous and Black people), the date imports of Children’s Tylenol will arrive (van Koeverden: It will be available in the coming weeks), senior’s lodge rent increases because of inflation (Khera: We have increased OAS which you opposed), food insecurity in Quebec (Rodriguez: Conservatives are all about austerity and a lack of compassion), reforms to the bail system (Lametti: We have been discussing this with provinces, and have delegated the question to our deputy ministers), and requests from francophone groups about the official languages bill (Petitpas Taylor: Some pabulum about the bill, and saying the Bloc and Conservatives are playing political games).

Darren Fisher started reading a script then stopped. “Sorry, wrong one.”
*sigh*
Scripts should be banned in the House. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) November 17, 2022

Vien demands the government end tax hikes to solve food insecurity.
The only taxes going up are on profitable corporations and luxury goods like yachts and private planes. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) November 17, 2022

Overall, I’m not really sure what to say that isn’t just repeating everything I’ve said for the past few weeks. QP has become increasingly mind-numbing of late, as the same few mendacious talking points get reiterated over and over again, and the government refusing to call out their misinformation and disinformation 99 percent of the time, or not pointing out that premiers need to be held to account for things like what’s happening in emergency rooms. While it’s curious that we’ve seen some ministers like Sean Fraser start stepping up to be a bit more forceful in calling out the Conservative positions on climate inaction and the costs that has to provinces like his, most of the time we still get Terry Duguid’s useless recitation of the same talking points, over and over again.

We did have a moment today where another parliamentary secretary, Darren Fisher, started reading one script, then stopped, declared “wrong one,” and picked up a different script to start reading (once the uproar died down). It’s just such an encapsulation of everything that is wrong with how our Parliament is functioning, where we don’t have any meaningful exchanges anymore, and it’s just one scripted line after another, because that’s how their comms team thinks they can best get clips to put on their socials. It’s debasing our parliamentary democracy, but nobody seems willing to put their foot down and say ‘enough.’

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Élisabeth Brière for a tailored navy suit with a white top, and to Mark Holland for a navy suit with a crisp white shirt and a blue and white checked bow tie. Style citations go out to Luc Desilets for a dusky rose jacket over a white shirt, blue-grey tie and black slacks, and to Julie Dabrusin for a lilac collared top with a subtle floral pattern over black slacks.