QP: Useless responses to bad faith questions on carbon prices

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While the prime minster was in town earlier in the morning, he headed off to Montreal for private business instead of attending QP, while his deputy continued her weeks-long absence from QP. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and accused Trudeau’s brother of accepting the dubious Chinese-funded donation to the Trudeau Foundation, and wanted him summoned to committee. Mark Holland insisted the prime minister had no relationship with the Foundation. Poilievre repeated the same in English with some added flourish, and Holland repeated his same response. Poilievre then moved onto the GHG emissions inventory, noted that it did increase in 2021—without noting that the curve has been bent and emissions are falling overall, to which Terry Duguid recited a script about the rebates. Poilievre cherry-picked figures from the PBO’s report that distorted what it claims, insisting the carbon price was useless and costly, and Duguid proved his own uselessness in repeating another good news talking point. Poilievre then demanded the government cut taxes and their “inflationary deficits,” to which François-Philippe Champagne listed priorities that Canadians told them they held, and that the government was acting on them.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and spun a narrative about David Johnston and the Trudeau Foundation, and demanded a public inquiry at once. Dominic LeBlanc disputed that the government has done nothing, and listed some of their actions. Therrien then raised Katie Telford’s testimony at committee and complained about it, to which LeBlanc praised the work that Johnston is undertaking.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and demanded the government “get serious” in negotiating a “fair contract” with public sector workers. Mona Fortier read a script about a good offer on the table and that they expect both parties to act in good faith. Singh repeated the question in French, and got the same scripted response.

Round two, and Jasraj Hallan gave some angry misleading word salad about the carbon price (Duguid: Good news about rebates!; Fraser: Carbon prices are the best way to fight climate change and families get more back), Melissa Lantsman angrily read the same misleading talking points about the carbon price (Gould: You guys keep voting against help for Canadians; Boissonnault: You voted against reducing taxes), and Pierre Paul-Hus concern-trolled about an  analogy Trudeau made about good debt versus bad debt (Champagne: Hooray for the grocery rebate; St-Onge: Hooray for our budget).

Yves Perron demanded assistance for farmers (Bibeau: We are concerned by these survey results, but we have assistance programmes available for them), and Claude DeBellefeuille to demand a Royal Recommendation for a private member’s bill on extending EI sickness benefits (Gould: We are in the process of comprehensively modernising the EI system).

Raquel Dancho blamed the federal government for attacks on transit (Mendicino: We are moving on bail reforms, but we have invested in law enforcement, which the Conservatives voted against), Frank Caputo railed about bail for intimate partner violence (Lametti: We already reversed the onus for this), and Dominique Vien demanded the government protect citizens (Lametti: We are working with provinces).

Jenny Kwan read about corporate landlords (Hussen: We have done so many things to help people get housing), and Blake Desjarlais worried about an increase in hate crimes (Virani: We are challenging those acts when they occur, and working toward legislation to ensure security).

Round three saw questions on foreign interference (Mendicino: My colleague is misleading this Chamber, and we have taken measures and there are more in the budget), the Trudeau Foundation (Holland: The prime minister has not had any dealings with the Foundation for a decade), the recent ice storm (Blair: The disaster assistance management arrangement works well with provinces, and we pay when we receive the receipts), trumped-up charges of attempted censorship (Bittle: You can’t spell conspiracy theory without CPC; Boissonnault: We are defending people online and making sure web giants pay, not censoring), defence spending (Anand: We have increased it when the Conservatives let it dip below one percent of GDP), elver poaching (Murray: We doubled enforcement capacity and have worked with the RCMP), a First Nation without fire protection (Hajdu: We are investing historic amounts, and I am working with this First Nation), and the Governor General’s expenses (LeBlanc: The Governor General has committed to reviewing spending with the Armed Forces).

Overall, I remain somewhat astounded at just how useless government responses tend to be in the face of questions that are premised on bad faith, false readings of documents, or outright lies, such as with questions on the carbon price and the emissions inventory (yes, it did rise slightly from the 2020 lows, and did not reach pre-pandemic levels and shows that the curve has been bent). They could have put facts on the record. They could have called out bad faith. They could have challenged the bullshit being spewed. But how did they respond? By having Terry Duguid, the parliamentary secretary, stand up and praise the “good news” about the climate rebates. How completely useless was that, and his performance? You can’t paper over bad faith with good news pabulum. It’s baffling that this government can’t seem to grasp this fundamental point.

Otherwise, the rest of the day was pretty standard, and that’s not a good thing.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Chris Warkentin for a tailored dark grey suit with a crisp white shirt and a blue and white checked tie, and to Jenna Sudds for a navy suit over a white v-necked top. Style citations go out to Marie-Claude Bibeau for a long dusky rose jacket with pink and gold florals over a dark turquoise collared top and black slacks, and to Luc Desilets for a pink jacket over a black shirt and a light blue tie. Dishonourable mention goes out to Marie-Hélène Gaudreau for a bright yellow jacket over a black top with a pussy bow and slacks.

One thought on “QP: Useless responses to bad faith questions on carbon prices”

  1. I was amazed today to hear Trudeau “almost” slam Polly over his statements regarding the CBC. Don’t get me wrong… The Mother Corp is not free of shades personal opinion in its news reporting. The get away with it by calling it “commentary.” After awhile one knows which side of the spectrum the commentator stands and one makes adjustments. It is never difficult to make an adjustment after hearing the daily Polly drivel.

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