QP: Mendaciously torquing a boneheaded comment

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The prime minister and his deputy were both in town today, but absent from the Chamber as QP got underway, while the other leaders were all present, which is actually quite unusual for a Monday. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, lying about the carbon price, and then calling on the “second carbon tax,” which doesn’t exist, to also be cancelled, with a mention of Quebec and the Bloc thrown in there. Steven Guilbeault insisted that the government has been consistent, ask that any party that wants to be in government needs to deal with climate change while tackling affordability, and that the Conservatives have nothing on offer. Poilievre switched to English to claim that Trudeau was huddled in the foetal position, sweating about Poilievre’s “Axe the Tax” rally, before he paused the carbon tax on heating oil. Jonathan Wilkinson pointed out their heat pump programme for people to take advantage of. Poilievre raised Gudie Hutchings’ media interview when she talked about other areas of the country needing to elect more Liberals and suggested that the Liberal MPs were useless in other areas. Wilkinson again got up to insist that they had programmes for everyone. Poilievre kept going about how useless those Liberal MPs from other cities were, and this time Karina Gould got up to praise the rebates. Poilievre demanded breaks for other provinces, and accused the prime minister of dividing the country. Gould raised the previous “common sense conservative” government in Ontario that gutted programmes people needed.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and he demanded an extension of the repayment period for CEBA loans, to which Rechie Valdez read her script about the added flexibility they offered for repayment. Blanchet was not satisfied and demanded that full extension, decrying the effect on “real companies.” This time Marie-Claude Bibeau got up to repeat the same points in more confident, extemporaneous French.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and he demanded that the GST be removed on all home heating—something which disproportionately benefits the rich. Wilkinson suggested that Singh needs to do his homework and repeated the points about the national programmes. Singh switched to French to raise Doug Ford and the Greenbelt before demanded the government build not-for-profit housing. Guilbeault pointed out that he was opposed to Ford’s plans, and that they signed agreements with province to protect more natural areas.

Round two, and Melissa Lantsman torqued the Hutchings quote and demanded the whole carbon price be cut (Wilkinson: This is a national programme, and there are solutions that will help people), Kyle Seeback gave his own torque of the Hutchings quote (Gould: Ontario families get over $1000 in rebates which you want to take away; Guilbeault: We reduced emissions since we took office), and Pierre Paul Hus claimed that Guilbeault was humiliated by the carbon price pause on heating oil (Guilbeault: All the measures we have put into place are all measures that the Conservatives are opposed to).

Claude DeBellefeuille repeated the demand to extend the CEBA repayments (Valdez: We helped these companies through the pandemic, and offered them additional flexibility; Bibeau: Another explanation of the reimbursement terms), and Jean-Denis Garon gave his own plea for that extension (Valdez: Same talking points).

John Barlow gave his own mendacious torquing of Hutchings’ quote (Fraser: Our heat pump programme will save families thousands of dollars per year; Gould: The exemption is across the country, but you are silent while Danielle Smith tries to gut Albertans’ pensions), and Rod Zimmer tried to give a Yukon twist to the same question (Wilkinson: The programme is national and you didn’t complain when we stepped up to help clean up oil wells in Alberta and Saskatchewan).

Taylor Bacharach complained that the heat pump programme wasn’t being fair (Wilkinson: Do your homework, the programme is national, and we increased the amount), and Bonita Zarrillo complained about Air Canada’s accessibility failures (Rodriguez: I was horrified to hear this story, and my office has contacted Air Canada, which needs to do better).

Round three saw yet more mendacious questions on the carbon price and Hutchings’ quote (Guilbeault: Hooray electric vehicles; You were a part of a government that put the carbon price in Quebec; Wilkinson: This question is rich coming from you; The exemption and rebates are national; Gould: The exemption and rebates are national, while climate change is an existential threat; Rodriguez: You were part of a Cabinet who put a carbon price in place; Lebouthillier: There is price on pollution because it is expensive, while our plan is flexible; Fraser: The problem we are trying to cure is pollution and we have a heat pump programme that will help people safe thousands of dollars; O’Regan: We tried to find a way to make sure people can square affordability with fighting climate change). There were also questions about crop damage due to extreme weather (Serré: We will be there for those affected; Guilbeault: We have a national strategy to fight climate change and we are working with farmers and producers), students going to food banks (Turnbull: We have called the grocery CEOs to task and we are tracking their progress), and the Governor General’s spending (St-Onge: The GG does important work for Canada, and we expect her office to spend with rigour).

Overall, the tenor of the day was wholly expected after the weekend of faux-grievance shitposts as the Conservatives deliberately mistook what Gudie Hutchings said on CTV’s Question Period about voting for more Liberals, and spun it into this complete nonsense around the carbon price. They don’t care if it’s a misquote or an outright lie—they’re only looking for clips that will make people angry over social media, because that’s all this is about anymore. We’re not having any kind of honest debate about any real issues, because they’re only trying to push their particular narrative, and that goes on both sides of this. The government was not terribly great in pushing back on any of this (though the couple of times when Jonathan Wilkinson clapped back at the NDP about not doing their homework as they asked about things that they should have known about regarding last week’s announcement was great), and let the misquotes and falsehoods just linger in the air, as they always do for whatever reason. And as a result, things continue to get even dumber as the days go by.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Iqra Khalid for a grey suit with a windowpane pattern over a white top, and to Glen Motz for a dark grey suit over a light purple shirt and a dark purple tie. Style citations go out to Adam van Koeverden for a medium grey jacket over a beige high-necked zipped sweater over what appeared to be a dark grey top with no tie, and to Stephanie Kusie for a taupe belted smock top with faux-fur trim over dark beige slacks. Dishonourable mention goes out to Anna Roberts for a mustard top under a leopard print shawl with black faux-fur trim over black slacks.