QP: Interminable questions about Trudeau’s Xmas vacation

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Both the prime minister and his deputy were present, together, for the first time in probably two months, which should have been notable, but ended up not being as a result of today’s news cycle. Pierre Poilieve led off in French, cited a poll that said many Canadians had to cancel summer vacation plans, and then raised that CBC story about the prime minister’s Christmas vacation where he stayed at the villa of someone who donated to the Trudeau Foundation. (Note that this link is entirely specious), and asked if the prime minister paid for his lodgings at the villa. Justin Trudeau noted that he has been friends with that family for 50 years and that they worked with the Ethics Commissioner to ensure that all rules were followed, and if Poilievre was really preoccupied by the cost of living, he would support the budget. Poilievre switched to English to reiterate the question, with some added smarm, and Trudeau repeated his response with a couple of added attempted jabs. Poilievre insisted that nothing was free and demanded to know who much was paid for the accommodation, to which Trudeau noted that Poilievre seems to have struggle with the concept of friendship, and that this family friendship goes back fifty years, before he pivoted to Poilievre running to American billionaires in order to attack the local news that Canadians rely on. Poilievre insisted that this was about power and influence, and took a swipe at the Aga Khan, before Trudeau hit back that there were security considerations before chiding Poilievre for not voting to support Canadians. Poilievre took more swipes, including at the Queen’s funeral (which he termed “a vacation”) before deploying his tired “this prime minister is out of touch while Canadians are out of money” line. Trudeau said that if Poilievre cared about Canadians as he did about partisan attacks, he would support their plans for things like child care and dental care.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and he took his own swing at the vacation story, and Trudeau insisted that the Ethics Commissioner cleared everything. Blanchet tried to pivot to that dubious Chinese donation to the Trudeau Foundation, and Trudeau stated bluntly he hasn’t had anything to do with the Foundation for ten years.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and he demanded help for workers instead of CEOs. Trudeau recited his lines from a script about the grocery rebate and the help they are delivering. Singh repeated the question in French, and Trudeau repeated his response extemporaneously.

Round two, and Jasraj Hallan gave some angry word salad about the vacation and demanded an apology (Holland: Your party did nothing for people who were in poverty, and is your position that the prime minister should not have security when he travels with his family or that he not go on vacation at all), Andrew Scheer was sanctimonious about the prime minster’s expenses and demanded to know if he reimbursed the commercial rate for his airfare (Holland: He did), and Pierre Paul-Hus tried to spin a conspiracy theory around the vacation (Holland: a and a prime minister take a holiday with his family, or with security?).

René Villemure worried about “suspicious” donations to the Trudeau Foundation (Holland: He hasn’t been associated for ten years), and Marie-Hélène Gaudreau demanded a public inquiry into foreign interference (Holland: We named David Johnston to ensure we have the right thing).

Michael Barrett demanded to know if the the PM paid the $9000 commercial rate for those villas on a “donor trip”—it wasn’t a donor trip (Holland: You guys haven’t asked a single question on the budget), and Luc Berthold demanded the prime minister’s brother testify before a parliamentary committee about the Trudeau Foundation (Holland: The prime minister hasn’t been involved in the Foundation for ten years).

Matthew Green took his own swing at the vacation story (Holland: We have been tackling poverty, and yes the prime minister took a vacation with family friends), and Heather McPherson blamed the federal government for the Alberta Energy Regulator’s failure to report tailings ponds leaks (Guilbeault: We have been working to get to the bottom of this and to improve the reporting system).

Round three saw questions on the Trudeau Foundation (Holland: It’s not a cover up not to follow every conspiracy theory you dream up), the mandate given to Harjit Sajjan to sell weapons in Qatar (Vandenbeld: Those talking points were not mentioned at that meeting, and Canada has strict export controls around weapons), that vacation versus the carbon price (Gould: You won’t vote to support Canadians; Guilbeault: You should read the whole PBO report, and climate change already has a cost; the GHG inventory shows we cut emissions and our plan is working), the FBI arresting alleged Chinese agents in New York (Mendicino: The RCMP shut down the police stations in Canada, and we are taking decisive action), opioids (Bennett: We are using every tool at our disposal to work with our partners), the slow response to repay troop trainers in Poland for food expenses (Anand: It’s great that we’re training Ukrainians in Poland, and we will stand up for our Armed Forces).

Overall, it was a mind-numbingly stupid day. The vacation story was largely bullshit—cheap outrage combined with the specious connection to Trudeau Foundation donors regarding a bequest two years ago—but that was virtually the only thing that was talked about. Everyone needed their clip berating the prime minister, and tutting about out of touch he was, or to make these conspiracy theory links about the Foundation, but aside from his singular good quip about Poilievre struggling with the concept of friendship, the Liberals didn’t help themselves at all. While Mark Holland got sanctimonious about whether prime ministers should be allowed to go on vacation, Trudeau and the Liberals should have just owned up from the start that yes, the accommodations were a gift, and that it was cleared by the Ethics Commissioner, and just let that be the end of it. But they didn’t they refused to answer, and it just dragged it out and caused damage because they’re being evasive. It’s so stupid.

Otherwise, it was noteworthy that Chrystia Freeland showed up for QP for the first time in nearly two months, and that there is a fresh new budget to ask questions about, and not a single budget question was asked. Not one. It’s really hard to claim that we’re anything remotely resembling a serious country with a serious Parliament when our MPs behave like this.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Adam van Koeverden for a tailored navy suit over a crisp white shirt and a dark blue tie, and to Lindsay Mathyssen for a long white jacket over a black top (which might have been a dress but I couldn’t tell from the distance). Style citations go out to Rosemarie Falk for a maroon top under a white sweater with a white skirt with pink florals, and to Steven Guilbeault for a dark blue jacket over a a white shirt, dark grey tie, and light grey slacks. Dishonourable mention goes out to Michelle Ferreri for an oversized dark golden yellow jacket over a black v-necked top and matching leather slacks.

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