QP: Freeland finally takes the budget questions

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The prime minister was making a stop in Alberta to survey the wildfire situation before heading off to South Korea, but his deputy was present for a change, as were most of the other leaders. Before things got underway, the Speaker asked MPs to listen during Members’ Statements rather than talking amongst one another so that they don’t inadvertently laugh during sad statements, or anything like that.

Pierre Poilievre led off in English, and tried point to contradictions in things Chrystia Freeland said, and demanded they stop “inflationary” taxes and deficits. (Taxes actually fight inflation). Freeland got up to accuse the Conservatives of talking down the economy, and praised the country’s Aaa credit rating. Poilievre repeated the question in French, and Freeland said it’s important to understand the data, and listed items to show how well Canada is doing among the G7. Poilievre said that the prime minister had fled the country rather than defend the budgets and tried to call out Freeland as well. Freeland noted that she was with G7 finance ministers in Japan, and said that if Conservatives think that they shouldn’t go to these meetings, they should say so. Poilievre returned to English to mock the “important meetings with important people” rather than common people, and accused her again of fuelling inflation. Freeland took exception to the notion that government travel was somehow elitist. Poilievre hammered away at this, to which Freeland reminded him that he lives in Stornaway with a chef and driver and has only lived on taxpayer dollars his entire life.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and railed that the prime minister called by-elections rather than a public inquiry into foreign interference. Marco Mendicino recited the well-worn pabulum about measures they have taken and waiting for David Johnston. Therrien tried again, and this time Dominic LeBlanc says that he shares the concerns about protecting by-elections, and said that they have implemented measures.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and he blamed the government for Stellantis blackmailing them over a battery plant, and Freeland insisted that the government always fights for workers and jobs by things like the New NAFTA, the EV tax credit incentives in the US, and the Volkswagen plant. Singh switched to French to complain about rising rents in Quebec. Ahmed Hussen recited his housing benefit talking points in English.

Round two, and Poilievre got back up to complain about the Stellantis plant and the Trans Mountain expansion (Freeland: You oppose the historic transformation that VW represents and you couldn’t get Trans Mountain built), Jasraj Hallan gave some angry word salad about inflation (Freeland: I will appear at committee tomorrow, but you need to end your temper tantrum of a filibuster), Melissa Lantsman railed about inflation (Freeland: We won’t let you get away with misinformation and the prime minister is at a G7 meeting; Hussen: When the personal attacks are increasing, it proportional to your lack of ideas), and Gérard Deltell complained about Freeland travelling (Freeland: Are you proposing an isolationist policy, that we don’t go to meetings at the White House?).

Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe returned to the alarmist nonsense about the “century initiative” (Lalonde: If you want to know our plans, you should actually read them), and worried that they were letting in too many people while there were processing delays (Lalonde: We have been tackling the backlog and speeding up processing).

Adam Chambers worried about the debt-to-GDP ratio (Freeland: The PBO says that we compare favourably to other G7 countries and our deficit if quite low compared to European standards; The people who pay the price for Conservative so-called economics are the most vulnerable while we lifted people out of poverty), and Michelle Ferreri read more of the same talking points (Freeland: You need to tell Canadians what you would cut).

Singh got back up to worry about increasing rental prices in Halifax (Hussen: Rental regulation is provincial jurisdiction and we are doing what we can at the federal level), and Rachel Blaney wanted unique guidelines for women veterans (MacAulay: We are committed to gender-based analysis in our policies, and we created the office of women and LGBT veterans).

Round three saw questions on the deficit and showing up at finance committee (Freeland: I am not a virtual reality creation, and we have the strongest economy in the G7; Holland: Why are you badgering her about being in committee when she said she will be there tomorrow?; Gould: It’s typical of Conservatives not to take yes for an answer), the Trans Mountain expansion cost overruns (Freeland: We know how important it is to get a fair price for our resources on an international market), whether Chinese “police stations” are still in operation (Mendicino: The RCMP took decisive and concrete action), a stabbing attack from someone on bail (Lametti: We are taking measures in concert with provinces), payments under Jordan’s Principle (Hajdu: We have approved $2.56 million in services under the Principle, and I am looking into this particular case), and the two-billion tree pledge (Dabrusin: Between the study and release of the report, we negotiated six deals with provinces for planting, and we are on track).

Overall, it was nice to see Freeland back in QP and taking questions about the budget—more or less—today, as that hasn’t happened pretty much since the budget was released, even if she had been there a handful of times since. But they weren’t really budget questions. It was mostly some ridiculous overheated rhetoric about the deficit (no, it doesn’t take thousands of dollars out of the pockets of everyday Canadians—that’s not how federal budgets work), or demands for her to go to Finance committee, when she had already booked to appear tomorrow. The fact that they kept reading the scripts demanding her to go after she had already made it clear she would be attending is a sign of just how pathetic things are for most MPs who hew so tightly to their scripts that they make themselves look ridiculous.

I would also point do the particular accusations around Freeland and the prime minister travelling when people are going to food banks, and so on. Freeland was quick to call this out as an attempt at trying to create a narrative about elitism and isolationism, but this needs to be done more consistently and more forcefully. I did appreciate that Freeland did point out that Poilievre has no business trying to create such a narrative when he lives in Stornoway and has received a taxpayer-funded paycheque his entire life, but we need to be careful about how that can make populist nonsense worse rather than point out hypocrisy.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Glen Motz for a dark grey suit with a light purple shirt and a grey and purple plaid tie, and to Shelby Kramp-Neuman for a khaki suit over a black v-necked top. Style citations go out to Patty Hajdu for a long white jacket with loud pink florals over a pink top and white slacks, and to Arif Virani for a light tan suit with a white shirt and a black tie with a diamond pattern and a black pocket square. Dishonourable mention goes out to Sophie Chatel for a black jacket and slacks over a dark yellow top.