While the prime minister was in town, he was not in QP, nor was his deputy. Most of the other leaders were absent, Pierre Poilieve was present, and he led off in French, saying that China has been trying to influence Justin Trudeau for ten years, starting with the donation to the Trudeau Foundation (which Trudeau had already stepped away from when the donation was made), and then said that Trudeau did nothing about China trying to interfere in two elections to support the Liberal Party (which is not really what the allegation was) before he demanded an independent public inquiry. Dominic LeBlanc got up and disputed that the government did nothing, when in fact Poilievre did nothing about the concerns when he was the minister in charge of democratic institutions. Poilievre switched to English to say that they didn’t do anything because the Communist Dictatorship in China wasn’t trying to help the Conservatives (that’s not an excuse for inaction), before repeating his same allegations that he made in French. LeBlanc repeated that they take any foreign interference seriously, which is why they took unprecedented steps when they formed government, including creating NSICOP, and the panel of senior public servants to monitor elections. Poilievre delivered a smear about Morris Rosenberg before insisting that the Liberals benefitted from the interference (not really) and then tried to call out the NDP for not being tougher on the government. LeBlanc said it was good news that top-level officials did already testify at committee and that he would be at committee himself on Thursday to answer questions. Poilievre noted the upcoming announcement coming later from the prime minister before suggesting that Trudeau would appoint a Liberal insider to hold a secretive process and not get to the truth, and he tried again to call out the NDP before demanding a public inquiry. LeBlanc reminded the House that Poilievre was the minister of democratic reform and he was aware of foreign interference allegations and did nothing. Poilievre went on a rant about the Liberals not being forthcoming about Chinese donations pre-2015, before demanding that the NDP force the government to allow PMO officials and Liberal Party figures appear at committee about the allegations. LeBlanc retorted that even if the leader of the opposition keeps repeating a falsehood, it doesn’t make it real, before he once again listed the measures they have taken.

Alain Therrien took over for the Bloc, and he demanded that everyone stand up for the confidence in the democratic system, and took his own turn to demand an independent public inquiry. LeBlanc agreed that it should be a non-partisan issue, and reiterated the “strong” measures that the government had taken. Therrien listed those who demanded an inquiry, and demanded it once again. LeBlanc again reiterated that they took measures, and gave more praise for NSICOP and other monitoring agencies.

Peter Julian rose for the NDP, and he too took a turn to demand a public inquiry, and LeBlanc recited the “unprecedented steps” that the government took to combat this problem. Alexandre Boulerice took over in French to repeat the demand and he got the same answer one more time from LeBlanc.

Round two, and Melissa Lantsman gave a condemnatory word salad about the allegations (Mendicino: We have taken measures and have transparency by way of NSICOP), Michael Chong demanded PMO officials appear at committee (Mendicino: We raised the bar on transparency through NSICOP) and complained that the independent panel did not alert Kenny Chiu about the attempted interference (Mendicino: Same answer), and Luc Berthold took another crack at demanding a public inquiry (LeBlanc: We have been taking this serious, and he knows full well we haven’t turned a blind eye like his party did when they were in government).

René Villemure made his own demand for a public inquiry (LeBlanc: We took all of these measures once we were in office), and Marie-Hélène Gaudreau took her own turn (LeBlanc: I agree we need to work together and we’ve taken strong steps).

Michael Cooper accused the government of covering up these allegations (Mendicino: We have put in place authorities for CSIS to deal with interference), and Kyle Seeback demanded PMO staff testify at committee (Mendicino: The committee heard from senior public servants).

Laurel Collins raised the CSIS report on climate change being a threat and demanded more action (Guilbeault: We have presented our emissions reduction plan to meet our 2030 targets and our national adaptation strategy), and Alistair MacGregor complained about grocery chains (Boissonnault: We have referred the matter to the Competition Bureau and we have raised taxes on profitable corporations).

Round three saw questions on inflation (Hussen: The biggest gatekeepers are in his own caucus as they voted against measures to support housing; Boissonnault: We only hear despair from you guys but you don’t have a plan, which we have), Roxham Road (Fraser: It’s not easy just to close it, and we need to work with the US while we uphold our obligations; We can’t just suspend and agreement with the US [but actually they can]), some bad faith bullshit over Bill C-11 (Rodriguez: What bill are you referring to?), Poilievre got back up give a bad faith reading about the company allegedly making cocaine and drug decriminalisation in BC (Bennett: These licences are for scientific and medical uses only), the PROC report calling for a public inquiry (Holland: Committees table their reports in due course), banning open-net salmon farms in BC (Murray: I met with the First Nations delegation this morning and we are working together on a path forward), and the official languages bill (Petitpas Taylor: I hope the committee passes this soon).

Barrett just launched into a litany of bad-faith bullshit over Bill C-11. Rodriguez wondered what bill Barrett seemed to be referring to. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) March 6, 2023

Rodriguez: Conservatives think that culture is what you find in a yogurt pot. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) March 6, 2023

Overall, it was a very, very, very repetitive day. The entire first half was the same exchange over and over and over again, in both official languages, and it got boring very, very quickly. Pierre Poilievre’s questions were largely made entirely in bad faith (and some of the later questions, particularly on C-11, were fully in bad faith), though questions from other parties still got details wrong as they demanded the public inquiry, which doesn’t help matters. I also wanted to point out that the demands by the Conservatives for PMO and party officials to appear at the Procedure and House Affairs (PROC) committee is the continued erosion of ministerial accountability—that ministers and not their staff should be answering questions. They know this, they resisted these kinds of demands when they were in government, they will again should they form government again, and they know this, which is why this particular gamesmanship is so frustrating.

There was also an attempt at procedural shenanigans during QP where John Nater, who is the vice-chair of PROC, asked a question for the chair of PROC on when she planned to table the report on the motion on demanding a public inquiry, but said chair wasn’t present. He quite obviously was trying to get himself to answer as vice-chair, but the Deputy Speaker wasn’t going to have it (nor should he have). The Conservatives have tried similar “ask the vice-chair” questions in the past so that they can give a scathing answer about the government, but never quite so brazenly as they attempted here. Because remember, this is all childish and for the sake of clips for their socials and not the actual practice of democratic accountability.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Ginette Petitpas Taylor for a long black jacket with a grid pattern over a red top and black slacks, and to Yasir Naqvi for a tailored dark grey suit over a crisp white shirt and a blue patterned tie. Style citations go out to Alexandre Boulerice for a brown jacket over a white shirt, yellow tie and blue jeans, and to Michelle Ferreri for an oversized double-breasted orange-gold jacket (because it’s the eighties again apparently) over a black v-necked top and black leather slacks. Dishonourable mention goes out to Brenda Shanahan for a yellow poncho over a black turtleneck and slacks.