QP: Concerns about the situation in Israel

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While the prime minister was in down, he was not in QP today, though his deputy was for a change. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and in a somber tone, asked for an update on those Canadians looking to get out of Israel and Gaza, as well as those in Lebanon looking to get out. Chrystia Freeland noted that this was the first time they were in the Chamber since the Hamas attacks, and she declared that Canada is supporting Israel and demands the release of hostages and unequivocally condemned Hamas’ attacks. Poilievre switched to English to decry the Hamas attacks, and demanded that the government criminaise the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Freeland repeated her previous statement in English instead of answering the demand. Poilievre pivoted and raised the PBO’s recent projection about the deficit and that it was higher than projected, and demanded to know how this would affect inflation and interest rates. Freeland said that a fiscal update would be coming in due course, and that they should pay attention to the independent ratings agencies who keep affirming our Aaa rating. Poilievre cited former finance minister John Manley’s concerns, and insisted this was the government ruining our fiscal position. Freeland repeated the point about ratings agencies and that our deficit and debt-to-GDP ratio is the lowest in the G7. Poilievre raised the plight of a shipyard worker he met who worries about his mortgages, and blamed the deficit. Freeland scoffed that talk is cheap, and said that if the Conservatives cared about the housing crisis, they would support their bill.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and worried that we weren’t included in the Quint statement on the situation in Isreal—ignoring that the Quint is about nuclear powers, which we are not. Freeland spoke about being at an IMF finance meeting in Morocco last week and that they all put out a statement in support of Israel. Blanchet kept insisting that Canada was not being included, and Freeland spoke about Israel not being a partisan issue but a Canadian issue.

Heather McPherson rose for the NDP, and she also raised concerns about the hostages in Gaza, including several Canadians. Freeland praised the clarity on condemnation for the terror attacks, and that that the government calls for the release of those hostages. McPherson accused the government of not standing up for innocent Palestinians and demanded the government call for a ceasefire. Freeland raised that the government supports Israel’s right to defend itself and they have sent $10 million in humanitarian aid to “trusted partners.”

Round two, and Jasraj Hallan read some angry word salad about the deficit (Freeland: We will release a fiscal update in due course), Adam Chambers made a slam about Freeland’s attendance (Freeland: I wasn’t here last week but no one else was because it was a constituency week, and we were at the G7 and IMF finance ministers’ meeting in Morocco last week), and Pierre Paul-Hus wanted a confirmation of how much higher the government’s debt servicing charges will be (Freeland: The fiscal update will come in due course, and our fiscal outlook is strong; Fraser: Your plan will add taxes to home building and and build fewer homes).

Blanchet got back up to worry about the Quint and humanitarian aid (Hussen: We were the first western country to send more humanitarian aid), Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe wanted the government to press for a humanitarian corridor to Gaza (Hussen: We are calling for humanitarian access; Damoff: A civilian is a civilian and we call for international law to be respected).

Tracy Grey worried recited some talking points about inflation and deficits (Fraser: You worry about deficits, so what programmes to support Canadians do you plan to cut?), and Gérard Deltell asked the same with a Quebec angle (Freeland: Our fiscal position is responsible, and our Aaa credit rating has been reaffirmed, but if you want to help with the housing crisis, you need to support our legislation).

Don Davies demanded public pharmacare immediately (Holland: You would know about our work with provinces to reduce costs with bulk buying and catastrophic drug coverage), and Alexandre Boulerice demanded the same in French via video (Holland: Same answer in French).

Round three saw questions on deficits and inflation vis-à-vis housing (Fraser: You attended an announcement in your riding and took credit for a project we’re funding; Freeland: The way to build more housing is to support your bill; Martinez Ferrada: Maybe one day the Conservatives will vote in favour of a bill that will help build housing), the winners of an Afghanistan war monument (Petitpas Taylor: The department conducted a poll and most of the respondents were veterans, who chose a different concept than the panel), the price of food (Turnbull: Your leader puts out self-aggrandising videos while we worked with the CEOs; Sudds: We are doing the hard work of supporting Canadian families like child care or the Canada Child Benefit), the Impact Assessment Act (Guilbeault: The Supreme Court issued an opinion, and if you want a briefing by the justice department, we will be happy to provide it), the Auditor General’s review of ArriveCan (LeBlanc: We expect people to comply with contracting policies and if they don’t, it will be investigated by the appropriate authorities), the Suncor CEO’s testimony (Guilbeault: We are moving ahead with our climate plan), and the Governor General’s dry cleaning bills (St-Onge: We hope she is spending wisely—ignoring that this is for uniforms for staff, which she should know and just say so).

Overall, it remains quieter in the Chamber, the dull roar even more subdued, while they largely remain on their best behaviour for Speaker Fergus. Fergus, meanwhile, keeps hinting that he’ll have more to say about certain broken rules like pointing out presence or absences, but that hasn’t happened yet, so there remains no consequences for when it happens. I was surprised that there weren’t more questions on the Israel situation other than the few off the top, but on the one hand, it was probably just as well so that there wasn’t as much posturing as MPs will no doubt be putting on full display at the take-note debate this evening in the House of Commons, and they did also save the major speeches for after QP, when most of the leaders had a chance to address the Chamber then. I was also mildly surprised that the Conservatives only had a single question on Friday’s Supreme Court of Canada decision on the Impact Assessment Act, thought it could also be because they know they are in dangerous territory in what they have been saying about the decision because their talking points certainly haven’t been reflective of what the actual decision said.

Otherwise, however, we remain with the same levels of mendacity around questions relating to the deficit, inflation, and interest rates, and the government did very little to counter any of it. The one answer that really irritated me, however, was around Alain Reyes’ bullshit question about the dry-cleaning bills of the Office of the Governor General. Anyone who has paid attention to this and not simply taken the rage-bait of groups like the Canadian Taxpayers Federation would have read that this was for uniforms for staff, like tour guides and her military aide-de-comp, and so on, not her personally, or her predecessor personally. The minister should have known this and shut it down, but she didn’t, giving some bullshit pat answer about expecting the GG to spend taxpayers’ money wisely. They should know better than to let these scurrilous attacks go unanswered, and yet that’s what they constantly do.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Anthony Housefather for a light navy suit with a pink shirt and blue tie, and to Lindsay Mathyssen for a long fuchsia jacket over a black top and slacks. Style citations go out to Rosemarie Falk for a black smock top with dark red and gold florals over black leggings, and to Martin Shields for a tan jacket over a black shirt and slacks and a red tie with a gold leaf pattern.