QP: Conspiracies and scrambling the speaking list

Posted on by

The prime minister was off to Toronto to mark the first day of awareness of gun violence, and his deputy and at least one other leader was away as well. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, insisting that the House of Commons declared non-confidence in David Johnston, said that Johnston’s declaration that he works for the government and not Parliament was part of the problem—never mind that Johnston is not an officer of parliament, and any public inquiry would also report to the government and have its terms of reference set by government, so functionally it would be no different. Bill Blair responded that Johnston was doing the work asked of him. Poilievre switched to English and haltingly asked Blair about the wildfire situation in Nova Scotia, and Blair assured him that they responded immediately to the request for assistance. Poilievre then pivoted to the news that Bay du Nord was being postponed for three years, blaming government “gatekeepers” as he blamed the government for other projects that have not gone ahead (mostly because oil prices didn’t warrant them). Steven Guilbeault said that he did approve the project but they paused it because of market conditions. Poilievre scoffed at the notion of market conditions, and this time Julie Dabrusin said that they have tabled a bill to help Atlantic provinces diversity their economies with offshore energy projects. Poilievre insisted the government keeps suffocating projects, and Dabrusin disputed this, listing mining projects approved. 

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and he decried that Johnston reports to the government and demanded a public inquiry. Pascale St-Onge said she was disappointed that the opposition parties were not being responsible about combatting foreign interference or strengthening democracy, and implied them to get the briefings. Therrien was not mollified and tried again, and got the same response. 

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and worried about the early and severe wildfire season. Blair got up to note the size of the fires but also the federal assistance. Singh switched to French to asked about the opioid crisis, which gave Carolyn Bennett an opportunity to denounce Poilievre’s retrograde beliefs on drug policy.

Round two, and Andrew Scheer spun conspiracy theories about Johnston (Blair: Stop attacking the finest Canadians), Michael Cooper took his own swipes at Johnston (Blair: His loyalty is to this country; O’Connell: The only thing fake is your outrage, and you should get the briefings). 

The Speaker decided to reverse the list, so Kevin Vuong asked about declaring the IRGC to be a terrorist entity (Sidhu: We are focused on the the next steps to hold Iran accountable, and if a tribunal is not arranged in six months, this goes to the International Court of Justice), and Lori Idlout asked about the changes to air transportation to the North (Alghabra: We have been working with the airline to ensure it maintains viable and efficient services.

We returned to the list, so Luc Berthold gave his own kicks about Johnston, but in French (O’Connell: Same answer as before), then back to the bottom of the list for a backbench suck-up question, then Richard Lehoux asked about the misleading characterisation of the clean fuel standard (Bibeau: Hoory dairy producers, who are committed to net-zero). Back to the list for Berthold’s follow-up swipe (St-Onge: Stop focusing on pure opinion and get the briefings).

René Villemure gave his own demand for a public inquiry (St-Onge: Foreign interference is serious and should be beyond partisan fear-mongering; O’Connell: If you took it seriously, your leader would take the briefings), and Marie-Hélène Gaudreau blamed the government for the toxic environment around the issue (St-Onge: Accept the briefing so we can discuss facts and solutions).

Dave Epp, Bob Zimmer, and Gérard Deltell recited the misleading talking points about the clean fuel standard (Boissonnault: You keep voting against tax reductions; Kusmierczyk: We offer affordability programmes; Guilbeault: The federal carbon price doesn’t apply in Quebec, and you ran on carbon prices in the last election).

Don Davies claimed the government blocked PMPRB regulations on drug prices, claiming a conspiracy (Duclos: We did put into place strong regulations as of July 1st, and we look forward to doing more), and Jenny Kwan demanded the government do something about rents (Hussen: That is provincial jurisdiction but we are stepping up with rental supports).

Round three saw questions on the clean fuel standard disinformation (Guilbeault: You are saying no to clean air and clean water while we are dealing with wildfires driven by climate change; We haven’t missed our targets, your government missed the ones they set; they Environment Commissioner didn’t have the GHG inventory in time for his report; Boissonnault: Let me read from your platform promising carbon prices), 1995 referendum documents (Rodriguez: You only want to pick fights), crime rates increasing (Lametti: We have addressed questions on bail reform), the contracts to reserve hotel rooms for Roxham Road going empty because the problem has been “solved” (Lalonde: We worked hard to renegotiated the Safe Third Country Agreement), Bay du Nord being postponed (Dabrusin: This was an independent business decision based on market forces).

Overall, it wasn’t quite as gross of a day as yesterday, but we did see the Speaker trying to take some action today, when he started mixing up the speaking list a couple of times in order to try and break the noise. It only worked very temporarily, and he had to rebuke Chris Warkentin, who was stage-managing the questions for the Conservatives, as it was going on, but I’m not sure what all he actually accomplished. And no, the Liberals aren’t saints in the Chamber, and they have been heckling back a lot more than they usually do, but that may also be because the rhetoric is getting out of hand, whether it’s the myriad conspiracy theories around Johnston, or the vile smear that Poilievre trotted out yesterday. It’s also the end of the sitting, so MPs are full-on squirrelly at this point, but the Speaker is not managing very well. We need to make reforms to get rid of the list and empower the Speaker more, but I despair of this actually happening.

Otherwise, it was a bit odd that Pascale St-Onge was taking the foreign interference questions in French, but she is becoming a designated hitter in Cabinet. I also have to say that the government keeps forgoing opportunities to hammer Poilievre and other Conservatives on their complete economic illiteracy, whether it’s with the market prices of resources or on problems in inflation. Poilievre likes to sound authoritative because he watch some crypto bros on YouTube, but rather than actually schooling him, the government keeps contenting itself with patting itself on the back, which doesn’t actually help anyone.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Glen Motz for an eggplant suit and tie over a purple shirt with a lighter purple pocket square, and to Shelby Kramp-Neuman for a dark grey sleeveless dress with white panels. Style citations go out to Patty Hajdu for a shapeless dusky rose sheath dress with brighter florals across it, and to David Lametti for a light blue jacket with a grey windowpane pattern over a white shirt, pink tie and tan slacks. Dishonourable mention goes out to Pascale St-Onge for a cream jacket over a pale yellow top and black slacks.

2 thoughts on “QP: Conspiracies and scrambling the speaking list”

  1. Jenny Kwan…jurisdictional ignorance is the perfect ploy for politicians who use it to hoodwink voters. Her leader Singh is a master of this. It Kwan wants more housing the first place she should go is to the Housing Minister of BC. She can get his number!

  2. The “parliamentary privilege” custom is dangerously outmoded in the age of viral disinformation and social media clip-harvesting. MPs should not have carte blanche to abuse this with outright lies and viral videos that radicalize segments of the populace en masse. Gerretsen’s quip about the grassy knoll was a sharp comeback to the QAnonsense being flung about in the HoC, but I fear that the consequences of the CPC’s hatemongering will be that a real Oswald is inspired to go out there and make history.

Comments are closed.