QP: Just impotently wailing about Senate votes

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While the prime minister was in town, he was not at QP, though his deputy was for a change. Most of the other leaders were also absent, for what it’s worth. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and accused the prime minister of subsidising three different battery plants to the tune of $44 billion, and lied about staffing them with “foreign replacement workers,” demanding to see the contracts for each plant. François-Philippe Champagne said that Canadians can see where Conservatives stand, and that when Poilievre was employment minister, he oversaw the loss of 300,000 manufacturing jobs in the country, and that these plants will create Canadian jobs. Poilievre said that Champagne would be a good employment minister for South Korea, before railing about how much the government was spending on servicing the debt. Chrystia Freeland noted that Canada has the lowest debt and deficit of all G7 countries plus a Aaa credit rating, while having a responsible plan that could make the necessary investments in the economy. Poilievre switched to English to cite the stats about food bank use, and demanded that C-234, on carving out more carbon prices for farmers, get passed. Freeland patted herself on the back for programmes like child care and dental care, and said that Poilievre’s plan for cuts is not common sense but nonsense. Poilievre repeated his demand for the bill to pass, to which Karina Gould said that once again, Poilievre was proving he couldn’t tell the truth to a Canadians, at which point she was being drowned out by the Conservatives. The Speaker warned her about not “approaching the limit of what is parliamentary.” Poilievre then continued to lie about the effect of the carbon price on food, and again demanded the bill get passed. Gould got back and says that just because he says something, it doesn’t mean it’s true, and gave a laundry list of falsehoods including that the government doesn’t direct the Senate.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and he cited StatsCan figures around rental increases, and blamed the immigration targets for the rise. Marc Miller responded that Quebec controls its immigration levels and to blame the rise only on immigration was just rich. Therrien accused the government of getting their immigration targets by way of a Ouija board, and Miller dismissed this as not being a serious question.

Jenny Kwan demanded the government turn empty buildings into housing immediately, to which Freeland listed off their programmes to build, build, build. Lindsay Mathyssen repeated the thrust of the question with a slightly different frame, and this time Jenna Sudds recited that the government is helping families get by.

Round two, and John Barlow blamed food bank use on carbon pricing and demanded that Bill C-234 get passed (Freeland: Hooray our economic plan while you only cut; Guilbeault: You should ashamed for telling your followers to bully senators), Kyle Seeback repeated the same demand (Sudds: We support Canadians in need; Gould: The Senate is independent and only your party directs their senators, and hey, remember Walkerton), and Pierre Paul-Hus made the demand again en français (Guilbeault: There are no more Liberal senators; Your members are responsible for harassing and threatening senators).

Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe tried to insist provinces have no role with asylum seekers and demanded compensation for Quebec (Miller: You should read the constitution, and we have a good relation to Quebec; We need to drop the idea that that the federal government is an ATM).

Ben Long made his own demand for C-234 pass (MacAulay: You don’t have a plan to address the environment, and we are working with farmers), and Jeremy Patzer made his same demand (Gould: Senators are independent, and why did you vote against the Ukraine trade agreement?).

Taylor Bachrach demanded the oil and gas emissions cap immediately (Guilbeault:It’s coming by the end of the year), and Peter Julian made the same demand en français (Guilbeault: We have reduced emissions and are have done a lot, and the cap is coming).

Round three saw yet more recitations of scripts about Bill C-234 (Sudds: We have policies to help families; Gould: The Senate is independent and your MPs ensured that they were threatened; Guilbeault: Let me read about how Senator Don Plett bullied senators). There were also questions on federal funds to support French in Quebec (Martinez Ferrada: We adopted a new official languages bill which your supported; Rodriguez: We have been protecting French in Quebec and you are only looking to pick fights), the temporary foreign workers at the Stellantis plant (O’Regan: We have 900 skilled trades on the site now and it will be going up to 2000; Let me quote someone who says this is just political hay; Champagne: We’ll take no lessons from the Conservatives; You guys lost 300,000 manufacturing jobs when you were in power), a similar plant in Quebec also having temporary foreign workers (Champagne: We have attracted private investment to Quebec), more Indigenous housing money (Vandal: We have invested in partnerships and are co-developing), and extending the home green retrofit grant (Dabrusin: It was important for us to help people transition to heat pumps).

Overall, it was another day dominated by two major lies, with the same scripts that they kept reading over and over again—that the battery plants are going to be staffed by South Koreans, which they know is not true, and that the temporary workers are coming to install proprietary technology; and that Bill C-234 will lower food prices, as well as the notion that the government tells independent senators how to vote. None of this is true, and when the government tries to point out that this isn’t true, they run up against what is parliamentary. Well, they continue to talk around the battery plant workers issue and don’t just come out and say “they’re installing proprietary technology” but try to couch it in good news talking points about Canadian jobs, which just lets the lies fester. Because that’s what this government does—they refuse to explain, no matter how much it keeps hurting them, because “when you’re explaining, you’re losing,” which doesn’t actually help anyone.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Iqra Khalid for a cream-coloured suit with a white blousey top, and to Arif Virani for a navy suit with a crisp white shirt and matching pocket square with a medium-blue checked tie. Style citations go out to Alain Therrien for a grey windowpane jacket over a white shirt with a dark blue tie,  white pocket square and faded blue jeans, and to Julie Dabrusin for cream-coloured collared top with green and brown-red florals over a black leather skirt. Dishonourable mention goes out to Ginette Petitpas Taylor for a mustard yellow jacket over a white collared shirt and black slacks. 

One thought on “QP: Just impotently wailing about Senate votes”

  1. I sense that the time has finally come when the press except for the rightwing aligned ones, are calling out Polly’s shotposts and lies. There is a long way to an election and Polly will screw himself aplenty between now and then.

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