QP: Dangerous questions on the independence of media

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The prime minister was present today, which was nice to see, as were all of the other party leaders, and it wasn’t even a Wednesday to get everyone together, so that was great. The prime minister’s deputy, however, was absent, as is so often the case these days. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and he decried that the government’s deficit is driving up inflation and interest rates, which means people can’t get homes. (Erm…) Justin Trudeau responded that the austerity preached by the opposition wouldn’t help anyone get housing, before praising his government’s programmes. Poilievre insisted that people were living austerity while the government lived in largesse, and repeated his anecdote yesterday about the shipyard worker who couldn’t afford a house in Vancouver. Trudeau repeated that the Conservative’s austerity wouldn’t help people, and wondered what programmes the Conservatives would cut. Poilievre switched to English to repeat his anecdote about the shipyard worker with some added affected gravitas, and Trudeau repeated that the Conservative austerity won’t help anyone. Poilievre repeated his talking point about people living austerity amidst government largesse. Trudeau reminded him that Canada already has the lowest deficit and debt-to-GDP ratio in the G7, and wondered again what programmes Poilievre proposes to cut. Poilievre insisted he would cut the ArriveCan app, the Infrastructure Bank and McKinsey contracts and wondered if he would cooperate with the RCMP investigation into the ArriveCan contract. Trudeau noted that the government invests in people, and suggests that Poilievre ride the new transit line in Montreal that the Infrastructure Bank helped fund.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and he returned to his concern trolling about Canada not being part of the Quint group (never mind that we are not a nuclear power), to which Trudeau insisted that Canada is already working closely with the US and other countries. Blanchet repeated his question, and wondered if party leaders could get more comprehensive briefings, and Trudeau said his officials were working on it.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and he wanted assurances that all Canadians could safely get out of Gaza. Trudeau said that they have been concerned for all of the innocents in the region and praised their airlifts, before saying he was working to get the humanitarian corridor so Canadians could get out. Singh switched to French to raise the possibility that a hospital in Gaza may have been hit, and demanded that Trudeau call for a ceasefire. Trudeau insisted that he has been calling for hostages to be freed and to call for international law be respected.

Round two, and Melissa Lantsman accused the government of losing control of spending (Bendayan: Hooray for the Middle Class™, and we have legislation to stabilise grocery prices and build more housing; inflation is coming down because our plan is working), Eric Melillo worried about the deficit (Bendayan: We just announced new measure to reduce costly banking fees; Fragiskatos: You guys didn’t build homes when you were in power), and Pierre Paul-Hus gave his own talking points about the deficit, but en français (Champagne: Will you help Canadians by voting for our legislation?; Montrealers are scared of what would happen if the Conservatives get in power and make cuts).

Mario Simard mocked the CEO of Suncor and wanted the government to do more (Guilbeault: We have cut subsidies and public funding, which no other G20 country has; We have some of the most ambitious targets in the world), and Kristina Michaud worried that Canada will still be a top oil producer rather than cutting it (Guilbeault: Hooray our GHG reductions to date!)

Leslyn Lewis invented a constituent that repeated her party’s talking points (Fragiskatos: The housing crisis is underpinned by a lack of supply, which is why we are funding municipalities to build more; Sudds: Your promised reckless cuts terrify me), and Gérard Deltell worried about the deficit (Bendayan: StatsCan confirmed that inflation is coming down, and we will have a fiscal update soon; Champagne: The though of a Conservative government coming in and cutting is what is giving young people anxiety).

Rachel Blaney demanded the federal government build homes (Fragiskatos: We have been a partner to the not-for-profits doing the work and got 69,000 people off the streets), and Alistair MacGregor decried grocery prices (Champagne: Let me assure you there was nothing nice about my meeting with the grocery CEOs).

Round three saw questions on inflation (Hutchings: There is a saying in Atlantic Canada that Tory times are tough times, and here are cuts the previous government made; Petitpas Taylor: Your party would just cuts, like you did for veterans; O’Regan: We have reduced seniors poverty; Bibeau: Our home savings plan is a great way to help young people; Champagne: I’m surprised you’re not praising our investing in your riding; Boissonnault: Your very allies in the UCP are trying to hurt the pensions of Albertans), CBC not referring to Hamas as “terrorists” (Noormohamed: we have called Hamas terrorists, but CBC is independent of government; Rodriguez: Something about independence but not translating podcasts in Paris), repealing the Impact Assessment Act (Wilkinson: The price of entry for a strong economy is a sustainability plan), the SNC-Lavalin documents (LeBlanc: There was no active investigation and no charges were pursued), declaring the IRGC a terrorist entity (LeBlanc: Listing terrorist entities comes from the advice of security officials and I have asked for an update), assisted dying for mental health issues (Virani: The issue about MAiD is a deeply personal one, and those choices need to be made with Charter protections in place), Ontario government suppressing child care workers’ wages (Sudds: These workers need fair compensation and building out the system takes time, and we have been clear with the provinces that we expect better working conditions), and tax fairness (Guilbeault: An NDP advisor told a podcast that our legacy is taking climate change seriously).

Overall, things got a little noisier and a little rowdier today than the previous few sitting days, as best-behaviour for the benefit of the new Speaker is starting to wane a little bit. Fergus did call out a couple of MPs by name to try and quiet them down (which Rota very rarely did), so maybe that’s a good sign? We’ll see. Regardless, it seems that the Liberals have come up with new talking points of their own about how the Conservatives only want austerity that will hurt Canadians, and demanding to know which social programmes they would cut. The fact that they all started on this line was pretty indicative that this is the latest strategy of whatever communications genius is in charge of this government’s messaging, and while it has a bit of a point, it’s hardly doing the heavy lifting of providing frank answers like this government remains largely allergic to, and provides opportunities for Poilievre to list a number of nonsense things he would cut, most of which he would need a time machine to actually do. This being said, the answers got well into non sequitur territory for the government by the end, which is never a good sign.

If there was one exchange that stood out for me, where I pretty much lost all patience, was the Bloc question demanding that the heritage minister instruct the CBC to call Hamas “terrorists” in their reporting, while in the very same breath demanding that the CBC be free of political interference. He seemed to realise his inherent contradiction and was backpedaling in his supplemental, and tried to spin it that CBC management was being the censors, which again, doesn’t really make sense, and would not be something the government would have any control over because the CBC is independent and arm’s-length from government. It honestly blows my mind that two parties now—the Bloc, as well as the Conservatives because of shenanigans at committee earlier in the day—are threatening the independence of the CBC and by extension, press freedom in this country, because they want to score cheap political points. This is incredibly dangerous territory, and I don’t think they have a clue what they’re doing, and if they do, they are acting wholly in bad faith, which should be alarming to everybody.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Matt Jeneroux for a tailored navy suit with a white shirt and a lavender tie, and Melissa Lantsman for a black jacket and slacks over a white shirt with a banded collar. Style citations go out to Jennifer O’Connell for a high-necked grey top with puffy sleeves and pink and blue florals over black slacks, and to Darren Fisher for a powder blue jacket over a white shirt and grey tie. Dishonourable mention goes out to Maninder Sidhu for a black suit with a white shirt and bright yellow tie.