QP: A fictional second coalition

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The prime minister and his deputy were both present today, which has become somewhat unusual of late, and all other leaders were present as well. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and he called out the Bloc for voting with the government on yesterday’s Conservative Supply Day motion, and that La Presse says that the Bloc wants to keep the Liberals in power for another two years, and that there was allegedly a call between the Bloc leader and the PM, and demanded to know the terms of this agreement. Justin Trudeau said that he was always willing to work with anyone to fight climate change, and that he was happy that the Bloc recognized the best way to fight it was with a carbon price and to help families, which is what they were doing. He added that he hasn’t had a recent call with the Bloc leader about anything other than the Middle East. Poilievre switched to English to claim that Trudeau found a “new coalition partner” in the Bloc to save him from a “confidence vote” (which was not a coincidence vote), and wondered what they were promised. Trudeau recited the lines about phasing out heating oil, and thanked the Bloc for believing in climate change. Poilievre was outraged that Trudeau thanked the separatists, decried his being divisive, and demanded to know again what he promised them. Trudeau said that he exchanges regularly with all leaders, but hadn’t with Blanchet recently except on the Middle East issue. Poilievre then raised that all of the premiers were against the carbon price and that they demanded he remove the carbon price on home heating. Trudeau spoke about Canadians being united in the fight against climate change. Poilievre then tried to question about the NDP’s supposed flip-flopping positions. The Speaker noted that he didn’t sound like a question on the administrative responsibility of the government, but Trudeau rose anyway to denounce the Conservatives for not believing in climate change.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, noted that there was no call and the only true thing Poilievre said was that they are separatists, before he pointed out that the Liberals and the Conservatives are still advertising on Facebook in spite of their attempts to intimidate Canada. Trudeau gave another round of praise for being united on the climate, before saying that they were trying to find a way to get web giants to pay for journalism. Blanchet raised the 500 layoffs at TVA, and demanded the government do something, and Trudeau insisted that they are defending media against the web giants, which the Conservatives will stand up for.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and gave pro forma denunciations of both the Liberals and Conservatives before demanding support for their Supply Day motion on taking the GST off of home heating. Trudeau said that he was surprised that the NDP don’t seem to be that interested in phasing out heating oil. Singh reiterated his same demand for support in French, and Trudeau responses with his paean about phasing out heating oil and replacing it with heat pumps.

Round two, and Melissa Lantsman demanded particular Liberals stand up to account for their voting against the Conservatives’ non-binding Supply Day motion yesterday (Wilkinson: The real shame is you have no plan; This policy choice is about affordability and climate action, and Ontario is thinking of signing on), Scott Aitchison read the same script with different ridings mentioned (Wilkinson: We have a serious plan; O’Regan: There is an equality/equity problem here, and if you treat people who start off unequally the same, you perpetuate the inequality), and Eric Melillo dutifully read his own script with different call-outs (Wilkinson: You campaigned on a carbon price; You have no plan to tackle the climate crisis).

Martin Champoux returned to demands to do more for the media and demanded an immediate $50 million emergency fund and to convene a stakeholder meeting (St-Onge: We have implemented programmes to help, and we are working on options for TVA, but the Conservatives have been systematically been blocking our efforts), Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe worried about the “integration capacity” for Quebec immigrants (Duclos: Today we announced new housing units from the CMHC over the next five years; Miller: You are disconnected from the news, as the only way to fix Quebec’s labour shortage is immigration).

Pierre Paul-Hus tried to needle the Bloc about voting with the government yesterday and demanded to know what they were promised (Guilbeault: Infoman did a great takedown of Conservative falsehoods; All parties except yours believe that climate change is an existential threat), and Jacques Gourde mes the same nonsense accusation (Rodriguez: Where were you this summer with wild fires and overflowing rivers?; You believe the Flintstones was a documentary).

Alexandre Boulerice raises the Environment Commissioner’s failing grade for the government’s climate plan (Guilbeault: If you read the full release, he said that last year’s plan was the best to flight climate change, and we want to work together to do more), and Jenny Kwan demanded two million non-profit homes (Duclos: Hooray our partnerships with CMHC).

Round three saw yet more scripts about yesterday’s vote (Guilbeault: Greenpeace and Equitaire praised our climate plan; You have no plan for climate change or the future of Canada; Wilkinson: You don’t believe climate change is real; Your circus act is what is revolting; We have a plan to ensure long-term affordability for particularly vulnerable areas; Wilkinson: I have been having conversations with BC, Alberta, and Manitoba about extending our heat pump programme there; Holland: thousands of people died because of climate change last year; Gould: If you are so concerned about the welfare of Ontarians, you should ask the premier to sign onto our heat pump programme). It also saw questions on the CEBA loan repayment deadline (Valdez: We extended it and gave more flexibility; Freeland: We are proud to have created this programme that got them through the pandemic), food prices and Christmas hampers (Sudds: Many Canadians are having a hard time, so we are supporting them and the organisations that help them), the First Nations infrastructure gap (Hajdu: We have been working with partners to close that gap, and we are making progress with Indigenous leadership).

Overall, the day began with more glimpses of the fictional universe that the Conservatives have been world-building, and in this reality, a common vote means a “coalition,” and a non-binding motion is somehow a “confidence vote,” none of which is true, but this is part of how they are trying to build this bifurcated reality where they tell their own audience and set of falsehoods as presented as fact, in an effort to subvert and undermine the objective reality that the rest of us live in. It’s creepy, but this is what they are building toward. And aside this, the rest of the exercise was spent much as the last few days were—reading the same scripts where only the riding names are changed, calling out individual MPs and ministers for their votes yesterday. It’s reached this point of nihilistic futility. What really is the point of QP anymore if both sides are just trying to use it to generate clips for social media. Worse, the incentives to change aren’t there any longer. Our democracy is increasingly being suffocated with this kind of bullshit, and nobody seems to want to do anything about it.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Anita Anand for a dark purple jacket over a white collared shirt and black slacks, and to Han Dong for a navy suit with a pink shirt and a dark blue tie. Style citations go out to Steven Guilbeault for a brown suit with a white shirt and a blight blue tie, and to Pam Damoff for a black blouse with dense gold and red florals and a pussy bow over black slacks.