QP: Harvesting clips demanding no new taxes

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In between Biden’s visit and tomorrow’s budget, the prime minister was present for a somewhat rare Monday appearance, not not every other leader was. Pierre Poilievre led of in French, and he decried a supposed “war on work” that punishes people with taxes, which is a risible talking point. Justin Trudeau had a script in front of him as he noted how many hundreds of thousand of children they lifted out of poverty thanks to the Child Benefit, plus their child care and dental care programmes that the Conservatives voted against. Poilievre repeated it in English, and got largely the same response from Trudeau, this time without script, and with added mentions of clean energy jobs and the Canada Worker Benefit. Poilievre insisted that the  government was constantly raising taxes—factually wrong—and demanded no new taxes in the new budget. Trudeau pointed out they lowered small business taxes and created more supports for workers and families that delivered growth, taking a shot at trickle down economics. Poilievre insisted that Trudeau was the only one believing in trickle down as he scoops up all the money, insisted that he was right about deficits causing inflation (he’s not), and again demanded no new taxes. Trudeau insisted that they were “laser-focused” on growing the economy for Canadians. Poilievre segued this to doubling housing prices and demanded “serious penalties” in the budget for “gatekeepers,” to which Trudeau recited housing measures the government was taking.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and he demanded a public inquiry for allegations of foreign interference. Trudeau, with a script, read that they have tasked the “unimpeachable” David Johnston with determining next steps while NSICOP and NSIRA conducted their own investigations. Therrien then took swipes at Jean Chrétien’s comments that he wasn’t concerned about the problem, and Trudeau insisted that this was the Bloc trying to make partisan attacks over a serious issue.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and he cited a CBC article that says that millennials are at higher rates of insolvency and demanded measures to help youth in the budget. Trudeau, again with a script, listed measures they are taking for housing. Singh switched to French to ask if the government was putting a “grocery rebate” in the budget as reported, and Trudeau told him to wait for tomorrow like everyone else.

Round two, and Jasraj Hallan also raised the CBC article on millennial debt, and demanded no new taxes in the budget so that people can get housing—which is a strange conceptual leap (Beech: We reduced poverty and have been reducing the debt-to-GDP ratio), and sarcastically referred to the housing minister as a “genius” (Hussen: When you don’t have any ideas, you just attack), Melissa Lantsman demanded no new taxes in the budget (Beech: We have consistently reduced taxes on Canadians), and Pierre Paul-Hus made the demand in French (Bendayan: Inflation has gone down over the past eight months, and we have the lowest deficit and debt in the G7).

Andréanne Larouche demanded higher OAS for people between 65 and 74 (Gould: We took action to help seniors and ensured the most vulnerable got increased benefits), Caroline Desbiens demanded EI reform in the budget (Kusmierczyk: We are reforming EI because it’s too complex), and Monique Pauzé demanded assurances the budget would not contain any fossil fuel subsidies (Guilbeault: Last year we eliminated international subsidies, and we will eliminate all inefficient subsides by the middle of this year).

John Barlow railed about carbon taxes on farmers and demanded no new taxes (Bibeau: We are helping farmers during the transition to more sustainable practices; Gould: We have reduced taxes and created benefits that lifted them out of poverty), and Greg McLean made his own demand for no new taxes (Virani: Here are measures we have taken to support small taxes including cutting their taxes).

Daniel Blaikie worried about CERB debts on people (Kusmierczyk: Lower-income workers were able to benefit from our programmes, and we did the right thing), and Jenny Kwan worried that the border agreement will only drive people underground (Lalonde: We have updated the Safe Third Country Agreement and will accept more migrants from the Americas).

Round three saw more clip harvesting about no new taxes in the budget (Beech: Hooray our strong fiscal position; Champagne: Dollars invested by this government are attracting international investments; Guilbeault: I want to clarify that the federal carbon price does not apply in Quebec, and those who are under the federal system get higher rebates; Fisher: You voted against our supports for seniors; Hussen: Seniors are a priority group in the national housing strategy, and you voted against those supports; Gould: You voted against supports for people who need them; Bendayan: We will all see the budget tomorrow), and questions on releasing higher new Safe Third Country Agreement (Lalonde: This update is great news), pension clawbacks from women RCMP veterans (MacAulay: We will contact the affected members), and a denunciation of CSIS leaks to the media (LeBlanc: We need a non-partisan fact-based approach to dealing with this issue).

Overall, it was a pretty pathetic effort to once again have as many Conservative MPs as possible and demand no new taxes in the budget, so that they can once again blanket their social media channels with it. Pre-budget QPs are generally terrible as a general rule because it usually involves MPs asking what’s in the budget and the government saying “You’ll have to wait and see like everyone else,” while their Senior Sources™ selectively leak tidbits to media outlets. This was even worse than usual, however, because of this particular tactic, and it’s a tactic they are employing more and more often. But has the government ever called them out on it, even once? Of course not. And that’s why we’re tapped in the Bad Place.

I will also note that another Auditor’s General report was tabled this morning, and we got nary a single question about any of its contents once again. There used to be a time when the Bloc or the NDP would be the only ones to actually make that effort (the Conservatives might come around two or three days later, depending on the media take-up of said report), but today there was absolutely nothing. The whole point of QP is to hold government to account. The Auditor General just gift-wrapped for MPs a whole litany of things to hold the government to account over. And did a single MP take it up? Nope. This is terrible for our democracy, and yet another example of how unserious our Parliament has become. Absolutely pathetic all around.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Terry Beech for a navy suit with a crisp white shirt and a dark red tie and pink pocket square, and to Marci Ien for a dark pink pantsuit over a matching top with a deep notched neckline. Style citations go out to Andréanne Larouche for a long-sleeved navy top with huge white and pink florals over navy slacks, and to Kevin Waugh for a forest green jacket with a small windowpane pattern over an off-white shirt and a navy and red paisley tie and black slacks. 

One thought on “QP: Harvesting clips demanding no new taxes”

  1. Watched the quisling Mark Strahl nodding his increasingly fattening face nodding like a bird on a dashboard in the sun soaking up and agreeing with every lie Poilievre subjected us to in QP today. Ignorance and no common sense is the denotative meaning of stupidity and there he was! He will ask us to reelect him in the next general election though. Pathetic!

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