QP: The lie that C-234 is supposedly a money bill

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The prime minister and his deputy were both present today, which was nice to see, but not every other leader was in the Chamber. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and he complained about the debt servicing costs, claiming the prime minister is spending “more for bankers than nurses,” never mind that healthcare is a provincial responsibility and government bonds aren’t lit on fire. Justin Trudeau responded that since last week, more Canadians are having harder believing Poilievre, and rattled off the talking points about Canada having the lowest debt and deficit in the G7, the lowest debt-to-GDP ratio, and that inflation is coming down, while Poilievre would only cut benefits. Poilievre cited food bank stats in Quebec and blamed deficit spending and carbon pricing for it, and demanded the government end both. Trudeau patted himself on the back for their responsible fiscal approach. Poilievre switched to English to turn to the Stellantis plant and the possibility of 900 temporary foreign workers, which he misleadingly called “replacement” workers. Trudeau read that there would be 2300 local workers to build the plant and 2500 local workers when the plant is in operation, and that Poilievre’s need to politicise everything wasn’t helping, while he only wants to cut. Poilievre said that the prime minister was to blame for people’s self-imposed austerity, and demanded he “stop obstructing” Bill C-234 in the Senate, which is of course nonsense as he has no such powers—but this was also the subject of the Conservatives’ Supply Day motion. Trudeau pointed out that there are plenty of reasons for global food price inflation, not the least of which was Russia’s continued invasion of Ukraine, and took a dig at the Conservatives for voting against the trade agreement. Poilievre full-on flailed about Trudeau trying to change the channel from the misery he caused. Trudeau said that Poilievre was so desperate to score political points that he was standing against things that Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked for.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and noted the rise in antisemitic incidents, and blamed them on the “loophole” in the Criminal Code around religious speech, and wanted support for his bill to remove that loophole (which is a hugely complex issue). Trudeau called out the rise in Islamophobia and antisemitism, and said he would study the bill. Blanchet insisted the bill was straightforward and wanted it passed immediately. Trudeau read a script that hate speech is already criminal, and that they would take a “close look” at the bill.

Alexandre Boulerice rose for the NDP, and in French, he demanded the “anti-scab” legislation be passed immediately. Trudeau took a bit of a jab at the NDP, saying that while they like to paint themselves as the party of workers the government has proved themselves to be, and that he was glad they worked together on this bill. Matthew Green took over in English and took credit for the bill, and demanded the bill be implemented sooner than the 18-month period in the bill. Trudeau repeated his same points in English.

Round two, Poilievre got back up to again demand that Trudeau order the Senate pass the bill (Gould: The only flip-flopping is the Conservatives on their support for Ukraine; You’re the one who doesn’t admit he’s wrong and you don’t take responsibility for your actions), John Barlow made his own demand around ordering the Senate (Guilbeault: Let me read about how your followers have threatened senators), and Gérard Deltell repeated the demand in French (Guilbeault: Same quotes about bullying and threats).

Blanchet got back up to demand $460 million to Quebec for accommodating asylum seekers (Miller: The federal government is not an ATM, but I will discuss with with my provincial counterpart, not the Bloc on the floor of the House of Commons; The Bloc is not Quebec and this is just phoney indignation).

Michael Chong read some utter constitutional nonsense about Bill C-234 (Gould: The irony of this demand is too thick; LeBlanc: If you want to give orders to senators, tell yourself to stop blocking the bail reform bill), and Luc Berthold read some more nonsense about the same bill in French (LeBlanc: Tell your senators to pass the gun control bill).

Jenny Kwan demanded more social housing, claiming GDP benefits from it (Fraser: We are turning the corner from three decades of under-financing), and Lisa Marie Barron worried about sextortion and demanded an online harms bill (Maloney: No family should have to experience that that family did, and some of these concerns are in Bill S-12, and we are working on further protections).

Round three saw yet more demands for the government to order the Senate to pass Bill C-234 (MacAulay: We are investing to ensure farmers are on the cutting edge; Guilbeault: I’m not at COP in Dubai yet; Freeland: You represent Vegreville with its Ukrainian community, while you voted against Ukraine; The way to bring down food prices for the world is to stop Putin; Sudds: We will invest in social security programmes for Canadians). It also saw questions on a tender for Bombardier’s surveillance vapourware plane (Duclos: Hooray the expertise of our aerospace sector), being tougher on crime (LeBlanc: You can talk to your senators about passing the bail reform bill), the Stellantis workers (Turnbull: We won’t take any lessons from the Conservatives; Boissonnault: Stop trying to stand in the way of the new economy), the Ambassador bridge (Fraser: We are working with partners to keep trade corridors open, and I will speak with your more about this in person), demanding the Canada Disability Benefit immediately (Zuberi: We are ensuring this is done properly).

Overall, much of what happened in QP today was an extension of some outright lunacy, where the Conservatives have wasted a Supply Day on a motion about being mean to the Senate to ensure they pass this carbon price carve-out bill, but in such a stupid way where they’re not even passing a motion to send an official message–just spending the day reading twenty-minute speeches into the record about how carbon prices are bad. The fact that they used most of their quetstions in QP to carry this on was ridiculous, but nothing topped the insistence by Michael Chong and a couple of others that this was somehow a money bill that the Senate should have no choice but to pass, which is wrong and a really dumb lie to put on the record. It’s a private member’s bill, which is by definition not a money bill, and the Senate is not going to cause a constitutional crisis in voting against it, because it’s not a government bill. But hey, all the more to create clips where he sounds authoritative about the constitution (when he spouted utter nonsense), because that’s all this is about. Generating stupid clips for low-information voters on social media while they watch democracy burn.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Pascale St-Onge for a dark grey suit over a black v-necked top, and to Randy Boissonnault for a tailored navy suit over a crisp white shirt with a dark pink tie and matching pocket square. Style citations go out to Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay for a black three-piece suit with a bright blue shirt and a comically-oversized dark grey tie, and to Ya’ara Saks for a cream-coloured turtleneck under a strangely constructed sleeveless smock/jacket with black slacks.