While the prime minister was in town, he was not at QP, though his deputy was. Most of the other leaders were also present, for what that’s worth. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, accusing the prime minister of letting China interfere in two elections on his behalf, slandered David Johnston, and with Johnston’s resignation, he said that the Conservatives were willing to work with other parties on a public inquiry and demanded one be called. Dominic LeBlanc said that he appreciates the desire to work collaboratively, that a public inquiry was always an option, and that Johnston’s advice was that it would be difficult because of national security matters, but wanted opposition input on a commissioner, the timeline, and terms of reference. Poilievre pivoted to the rising cost of housing, blamed the prime minister, and demanded a balanced budget (as though there was a correlation between the two). Chrystia Freeland noted that while the country was burning and the government was trying to build a green economy, the Conservatives were block action. Poilievre switched to English to repeat his same nonsense-laden question, and Freeland noted the OECD projections about our strong economic growth before repeating her point about partisan games over a green economy. Poilievre cited the IMF’s concerns about the possibility of a major mortgage default in Canada, and again demanded a balanced budget. Freeland cited IMF praise for Canada and criticised the appalling behaviour of Conservatives blocking budget measures. Poilievre raised a CBC story about the state of student housing, to which Freeland pointed out that the Conservatives were blocking measures to punish Russia for their invasion of Ukraine.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, praised David Johnston for stepping down, and demanded a public inquiry with the commissioner chosen by the House (which is a bad thing) and that it be wide-ranging. LeBlanc said that he looked forward to working with opposition parties on next steps in a responsible manner. Therrien demanded a full public inquiry no matter what, and LeBlanc insisted it was not off the table but there were a lot of things that could not be made public.

Jagmeet Singh worried about mortgage increase and wanted advice for how people could cope. Freeland thanked him for the question, and praised their tax-free first home savings account and the housing accelerator fund. Singh said that doesn’t help a family now and repeated the question in French, with a Quebec figure instead of a Toronto one, and Freeland repeated her response.

Round two, and Melissa Lantsman demanded a public inquiry (LeBlanc: We would benefit from lowering the partisan temperature, but we need to agree on terms of reference), Michael Chong cranked up the sanctimony to demand a public inquiry (Mendicino: Hooray NSICOP and NSIRA) and railed about the Winnipeg Lab process (Holland: Your leader refused to do the work on this when we offered the documents), and Luc Berthold spun a bunch of libellous bullshit around David Johnston and foreign interference (Mendicino: We must do the work together; LeBlanc: It’s telling that when we say we want to work together you call it political games).

René Villemure said that the Bloc would cooperate but only if it was an independent public inquiry (Mendicino: We have always been willing to Bloc and you were invited to get top secret briefings so we could be on the same page), and Marie-Hélène Gaudreau repeated the same (Mendicino: We have taken tangible actions and added resources in the budget).

Tim Uppal recited a half-hearted script about balanced budgets (Freeland: Your riding has a large Ukrainian population and you should be ashamed that your party blocked support for Ukraine in the budget; Gould: You should be ashamed of your partisan games) and Dominique Vien read some nonsense that the Bank of Canada raised rates because of the deficit, which is blatantly untrue (St-Onge: I know you would like to forget about the pandemic but we were there when people needed it).

Lori Idlout worried that Indigenous police funding was being allowed to lapse (Mendicino: I have had constructive discussions and we are committed to resolving the situation), and Jenny Kwan demanded the international students who were defrauded a path to permanent residency (Fraser: We are working on a process to assist the victims).

Round three saw questions on inflation versus deficits (Freeland: It’s sad to watch staffers from the leader’s office bully you MPs into childish games; You have the temerity to talk about fires when you refuse to do anything about climate change as the country burns; What would you cut that we are investing in?; Fraser: You seem to be objecting to the assistance we gave to people during the pandemic; Gould: Your assertions are false; Inflation is global but we have lower rates than other countries and we have assistance for those who need it; Wilkinson: You need to start thinking about climate change; Guilbeault: There is no magic wand to solve climate change), assistance for farmers (Drouin: We have programmes for farmers; Freeland: Our government has made supports for farmers), setting up a national school food programme (Gould: I look forward to working with you on this issue as I have been engaging stakeholders), and on weather-related disasters (Blair: We are working with the insurance industry to help manage risk).

“You guys love Paul Bernardo,” Conservatives chant as their motion calling for clearly unconstitutional measures is denied. #HoC #cdnpoli

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) June 12, 2023

Overall, I was surprised that there weren’t more questions about Johnston’s resignation today, other than a few smears here and there, but mostly it was extremely repetitive with the same nonsense assertions that deficits caused inflation which caused interest rates to rise. Once again, deficits did not cause this spike in inflation, and when the Bank of Canada governor says there drivers of inflation are home-grown, that’s not what he means, but rather that global inflation has metastasised through our economy. And could a single minister ever point this fact, including one of the economists on the front bench? Of course not. And so we keep getting this same narrative, repeating over and over again, ad nauseum.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Jean-Yves Duclos for a tailored dark blue suit with a crisp white shirt and a pinkish tie, and to Mélanie Joly for a simple collared white shirt with structured navy slacks with four rows of buttons along each side. Style citations go out to Patty Hajdu for a red wrap dress with white and pink florals, and to David Lametti for a greyish-purple jacket over a taupe shirt, blue tartan tie, and tan slacks.