For caucus day, all of the leaders were present, which has been nice to see more consistently over the course of the week, for as long as this is going to last. Pierre Poilievre led off, and in French, asked how much the federal government had spent on contracts with McKinsey. Justin Trudeau said that he asked the deputy prime minister, the minister of public service as the president of the Treasury Board to follow up to ensure all rules had been followed, and that they are open and transparent with the committee. In English, Poilievre asked the same question again, and lamented that McKinsey is shrouded in scandal. Trudeau repeated his same response, noting that most of those contracts were signed by the public service. Poilievre quoted a previous Trudeau statement about his recruiting Dominic Barton, and demanded again to know how much they got paid. Trudeau noted that he has been touched by the number of Canadians of extraordinary backgrounds who have asked to contribute to the country, and Barton was someone who served the country; with regards to the contracts, he repeated his previous response. Poilievre accused Trudeau of never taking responsibility, and shed some crocodile tears about the civil servants feeling undervalued by those McKinsey contracts—never mind the history that the Conservatives and Poilievre personally had with using outside consultants because they didn’t trust the civil service—and again demanded a figure for those contracts. Trudeau mouthed some platitudes about supporting Canadians through a difficult time with direct supports. Poilievre listed mortgage prices, the cost of rent, the number of people going to food banks and blaming the carbon price for that (which is specious to say the least), and somehow tying this to the use of consultants, and his pathetic “just inflation” line. Trudeau said that while the Conservatives focus on schoolyard taunts, he’s helping Canadians.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, mentioned his meeting with the new special representative for combatting Islamophobia, Amira Elghawaby, and wanted Trudeau to admit that he did things indirectly. Trudeau noted that there are difficult conversations that needed to be had around the country, such as systemic racism, which is why they appointed Elghawaby in the first place. Blanchet wanted the prime minister to say that Quebec’s Law 21 is not Islamophobic, but Trudeau gave some platitudes about learning together. 

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and he blamed the prime minister for the growing nursing deficit across the country, which is solely a provincial issue. Trudeau noted that they sent billions of dollars to the provinces in the pandemic, and they were sitting down with premiers next week to discuss next steps. Singh made the same accusation in French, and got the same answer.

Round two, and Melissa Lantsman gave a string of accusations about how the prime minister personally made life worse for Canadians (Trudeau: You voted against all of the benefits and support we have been sending those who need it), Pierre Paul-Hus tried to spin a narrative about McKinsey (Trudeau: You abandoned the Middle Class™), and Garnett Genuis tried to connect Dominic Barton to the opioid crisis and demanded to know if Trudeau ever spoke to Barton about this (Trudeau: While you are spinning conspiracy theories, we are putting in a harm reduction approach).

Conservatives accusing the government of not trusting the civil service is the absolute height of rank hypocrisy. It’s like they put the nine years they were in power down the memory hole. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) February 1, 2023

Blanchet was back up to return to the question of Elghawaby’s appointment (Trudeau: We are here to help have these difficult conversations in Quebec; We know we made the right choice in appointing Elghawaby).

Poilievre got back up and he went on a sermon about mortgage prices, rent, food prices, and then circled it around to McKinsey and the opioid crisis before accusing the government of governing for the super-rich (Trudeau: We helped people while you told them to invest in Bitcoin), he tried to draw a line between carbon prices and people saying they wanted to apply for MAiD because of poverty (Trudeau: Same answer), and went again in French (Trudeau: when you speak about challenges, you ignore the pandemic and how people would be even worse off if you were in power), and then Poilievre raised the spectre of Bill Morneau and Mark Carney as those who said Trudeau was spending too much (Trudeau: We are staying focused on those who need our support).

Singh then got back up, and blame the prime minster for rising housing and rental prices, in spite of those being provincial jurisdiction (Trudeau: Here are the programmes we have to help people) and went for another round of the same in French (Trudeau: Same answer in French).

Round three saw questions on so-called inflationary spending (Trudeau: You voted against benefits for those who need it, and we have the strongest balance sheet in the G7; You were pushing vaccine hesitancy while we procured vaccines; You think austerity and cuts will help Canadians), demanding the federal government accede to premiers’ demands for more health money (Trudeau: We are willing to spend more but we want results), accusations about the bail system (Trudeau, with script: We have been working with the provinces on bail reform), a particular sexual assault case (Trudeau: There is an appeal process that we put our trust in), demanding Mary Ng’s resignation (Trudeau: She has taken responsibility and apologised; You want to talk about everything except your abandonment of the Middle Class™), the McKinsey contracts (Trudeau: We have stepped up with evidence-based policy to help combat the opioid crisis), and an expansive budget wish list (Trudeau: We will invest responsibly). 

Overall, it largely felt like a rerun of Monday, with the very same questions eliciting the very same pabulum platitudes in response, and around and around it went. The only time there was a bit of excitement was when Pierre Poilievre was name-checking Bill Morneau and Mark Carney (though not exactly quoting Carney correctly), but the exchange wasn’t exactly memorable, and there wasn’t anything of illuminating value throughout the entire exercise’s exchanges. There’s not really a lot that to say other than this is just more of the same, over and over, as my patience pretty much evaporates.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Justin Trudeau for a tailored dark grey suit with a white shirt and a dark purple tie, and to Kelly Block for a long white jacket with a black grid pattern over a black dress. Style citations go out to Kerry-Lynne Findlay for a fuchsia turtleneck under a boxy navy suit, and to Mario Simard for a tan brown suit with a black shirt and a grey striped tie.