QP: Variations of keeping the heat on

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While the prime minister and his deputy were meeting with premiers about future health transfers, most of the other leaders were absent, safe Pierre Poilievre. Poilievre led off in French, then pointed out the increase in the national debt without fixing the system, and demanded the prime minister take responsibility for the problems he caused, never mind that this is the result of generations of provincial premiers cutting their systems to the bone. Randy Boissonnault reminded Poilievre of the additional transfers under the pandemic, and that the PM is meeting with premiers today. Poilievre went another round in English and got the same answer. Poilievre went back to French to accuse the government of causing runaway inflation with overspending, misquoting people left and right along the way, to which François-Philippe Champagne vociferously defended the government’s investments in science and innovation. Poilievre returned to English to mock the investment in Medicago before reciting his “triple, triple, triple” ear worm and his new line about keeping the heat on while cutting the tax. Champagne got back up to defend the investment in Medicago as investing in all vaccines until they found ones that work. Poilievre listed a bunch of non sequiturs he considered misspending, and then modified his talking point to promise that they would keep the heat on until they take off the tax. Karina Gould got up to list the things the government has done to help people while the Conservatives voted against it.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc and he accused the prime minster of dividing people with his appointment of Amira Elghawaby and the Liberal MPs raising concerns about the Charter of the French language. Pablo Rodriguez got up to taunt that the Bloc only exists to divide. Therrien got up to rail some more about those Liberal MPs, to which Ginette Petitpas Taylor recited well-worn talking points about the bill protecting French across the country, after the opposition benches stopped chanting “Pablo! Pablo!” in the hopes he would respond a second time.

Don Davies rose for the NDP, and he railed sanctimoniously about private delivery of healthcare, and Adam van Koeverden read some pabulum about the investments under discussion with the premiers. Daniel Blaikie repeated the question in French, and van Koeverden repeated his script in French.

Round two, and Jasraj Hallan delivered a word salad to blame the government for inflation and included the “triple”/“heat on” talking points (Guilbeault: 95 percent of heating costs increase are because of world crude prices rising as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and refining margins; Look at the costs of climate-related disasters), Rachael Thomas recounted a seventy-year old woman who cried in her office about carbon prices (Hutchings: Remember the 105 houses in her riding that don’t need to be heated anymore because they were destroyed by Hurricane Fiona; Fraser: You keep using people in need to ignore the need for climate action, while people in my riding lost their homes from climate change), and Luc Berthold repeated the condemnation of the carbon price in French (St-Onge: You have never offered a solution to help people in need or to fight the impact of climate change).

Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe sarcastically read a mock advertisement about New York City offering a “Roxham Road package” to people (Fraser: This isn’t a joke and we need to have a serious discussion about it; There is no magic solutions and I met with my Quebec counterpart while we try to modernise the Safe Third Country Agreement with the Americans; Rodriguez: This is no time to joke).

Larry Brock insisted that Canadians were “living in fear” of violent crime and yelled about bail reform (Lametti: The laws on bail are clear and we are working with the provinces to administer the system in a better way), Frank Caputo repeated the same question while insisting that he knows the reality because he was a lawyer (Lametti: I would suggest he go back to the classroom; Holland: We have all been touched by violence and it’s deeply offensive to say we don’t care about victims), and Pierre Paul-Hus accused the government of ensuring we can no longer recognise Canada because they are too soft on crime (Lametti: People who do serious crime get serious time).

Heather McPherson asked about aid for Türkiye and Syria (Sajjan: We have released funds and will do more in the coming days), and Taylor Bachrach decried a lack of new safety measures after two deaths in a tug incident (Alghabra: Transport Canada is working to review these regulations).

Round three saw questions on carbon prices (Boissonnault: You keep opposing while we keep helping; Guilbeault: Which Conservative could Canadians believe—the one from the last election that believe in pricing pollution or the current one who doesn’t believe in climate change; Fraser: Every step of the way we have been focused on low and middle-income Canadians, every step of the way you oppose it, and I’m happy to take that to the polls; Gould: It baffles Canadians that you continue to vote against measures to support people), labour lobbyists on the Hill because of the use of replacement workers (O’Regan: We are consulting on legislation to be tabled before the end of next year), McKinsey contracts (Jaczek: The contracts were all above board; Holland: You are just making this up; Gould: It’s hard to believe you want to help Canadians when you voted against our measures), the Medicago investment (Champagne: This is not the time for recrimination, it’s the time for solutions and I have been trying to preserve those jobs and the technology), New York offering bus tickets to Roxham Road (Fraser: We are working to verify this account and are working to modernise the Safe Third Country Agreement), closing the housing gap for Indigenous people (Hussen: We are working to co-develop an Indigenous housing strategy, and some of that work is underway), and equal OAS payments regardless of age (Khera: Older seniors have more needs, and we have been there for all seniors).

Overall, the questions were all over the place today, with Poilievre both playing to the headline of the day, with a ridiculous assertion in his question on healthcare, to their Supply Day motion on the carbon price, and their preoccupation with bail reform (which was torqued beyond all recognition) and their conspiracy theory on McKinsey. The fact that you now have a line of different ministers answering these questions in a variety of different ways is curious, some more effectively than others (I was particularly struck by Gudie Hutchings saying that there are 150 homes in her riding that don’t need to be heated because they were destroyed by that climate-driven hurricane), though I will also note the fact that Pascale St-Onge is becoming the point person on certain French questions, and Mark Holland is increasingly becoming the chief moralizer of the front bench.

But really? We remain stuck in this same holding pattern, with nothing ever really new, and even if there is an item in the news that they are trying to get a reaction to, it’s still the same pabulum response, and more often than not, the issue in the news is being torqued beyond all recognition. This toxic pattern is eroding our system, but they just can’t stop.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Adam van Koeverden for a tailored navy suit with a crisp white shirt, a red and blue tartan tie and a navy pocket square, and to Julie Dabrusin for a short-sleeved grey and black patterned dress with a cowl neck. Style citations go out to Stephanie Kusie for a long-sleeved café au lait-coloured dress with a zebra pattern, and to Fraser Tolmie for a taupe suit with a windowpane pattern over a light blue shirt and a navy tie and pocket square).

One thought on “QP: Variations of keeping the heat on”

  1. Thank you Dale, for reporting the misspending by all Provincial governments who treated the Federal governments’ “22”% portion as found money to spend on reelection goodies.
    Most Canadians unfortunately are unaware of these governments” abject failures to train doctors and nurses, build and modernize hospitals, establish well run not for profit homes for the elderly and change the archaic “rules” around the quick certification of foreign doctors and nurses.
    One never sees this critique by mainstream media. Of course or Federal Liberal government ministers don’t have the chops to put the clown Pollynever to rest now do they?

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