QP: Constant questions to other opposition parties

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The prime minister and his deputy were on their way back from the weekend trip to Kyiv and Poland, while most of the other leaders were away. Andrew Scheer led off in French, and he recited the list of Conservative slogans to point out that the Bloc voted in favour of funding ArriveCan. Jean-Yves Duclos stood up to thank the Auditor General for her work, and cite the most of her recommendations have been acted upon. Scheer pointed out that the Bloc voted for this eight times, which got a warning by the Speaker, to which Duclos told him that that he should ask the Bloc, but reiterated the canned line about the government doing what needed to be done in the pandemic. Scheer switched to English to recite his slogans, and gave the same accusations about voting for ArriveCan, but this time directed to the NDP, to which Duclos repeated that if the opposition has question of the NDP, they should ask him not the government. Scheer repeated the slogans, and breathily worried about the carbon price increasingly, and misleadingly tied it to food bank use. Anita Anand reminded that climate change is real, and that they want to take money out of people’s pockets. Scheer misquoted the PBO about the carbon price, and linked it to people dumpster diving. Anand noted that they didn’t refute that they don’t believe in climate change or that they want to take money from people’s pockets.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and he took his own shot at the NDP, accusing the government of spending on things Quebec already has and are not their priorities. François-Philippe Champagne acknowledged that they do take inspiration from Quebec, and noted they didn’t want to talk about their investments in the province. Therrien demanded more federal money instead of programmes, to which Mark Holland accused them of trying to start fights instead of helping people.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and he demanded the government reform Nutrition North, claiming that the subsidies are not passed along to consumers. Dan Vandal insisted that they are working to ensure that the subsidy is fully passed along, and that progress has been made. Singh repeated the demand in French, and got the same response. 

Round two, and John Barlow praised farm emission intensity before railing about the carbon price (MacAulay: We have been investing in helping farmers and producers reduce emissions; Guilbeault: You vote against funds to support farmers’ innovation), Rachael Thomas recited some slogans and some incoherent talking points about the carbon price (Wilkinson: The data shows that cutting the price would only benefit the very wealthy when you want to let the planet burn; Anand: We agree the contrast could not be more stark and we are putting money in people’s target), and John Williamson read some more slogans (Wilkinson: You keep saying that if people don’t like your principles, you have other ones; MacKinnon: You ran on a carbon price last election).

Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe echoed Quebec’s demand for a billion dollars for asylum seekers (Miller: We have been giving them money for asylum seekers and continue to negotiate with them; You just want to fight with people).

Luc Berthold recited slogans and chirped at the Bloc around ArriveCan (Duclos: If you want to ask questions, maybe you should ask us how we have high vaccination rates, a stronger economy and more jobs than before the pandemic; Champagne: Hooray the new Moderna facility in Montreal), and Gérard Deltell riled about the Bloc (Duclos: For such an experienced MP, you seem to have a hard time identifying who to ask questions to).

Bonita Zarrillo appeared by video to say that flight attendants have to do too much unpaid work (Sheehan: Hooray for our replacement worker legislation), and Gord Johns asked about a ship breaking company break environmental regulations (Badawey: We have been working on this issue).

Round three saw yet more questions directed to the NDP on ArriveCan (O’Connell: You keep contorting yourselves to come up with catchy slogans; CBSA is cooperating with investigations; MacKinnon: You are just reading slogans instead of helping Canadians). It also saw questions on when cost-overruns were flagged on ArriveCan (Duclos: There was a pandemic and civil servants did not follow the rules; Hooray for the Auditor General), releasing the Winnipeg Lab documents (Holland: Imminently), increasing crime rates (Virani: We all take crime seriously; O’Connell: You cut 600 RCMP officers when you were in power), and all-weather roads for the north (Vandal: We are working with provincial and territorial governments to make progress).

Overall, it was a bit of a stupid day, which was loud, disruptive, and in which the Speaker and ministers kept making unforced errors that just caused further disruptions and uproar. That said, how the Speaker hasn’t given a warning to Chris Warkentin for continually yelling at him as he’s trying to bring order to the Chamber is a mystery to me, because it shows a continued disrespect to the Chair and to the institution itself. Apparently the week away was not enough of a time-out for these MPs, and they somehow came back even worse behaved than they were when they left.

Meanwhile, the Conservatives decided to prosecute a plan of accusing the Bloc and NDP of supporting ArriveCan through appropriations votes, but the government kept being stupid in how they responded. They should have stayed seated, because those questions were not directed to them, but no, they kept getting up to answer and deliver the same overused talking points. Stop doing that. If the Conservatives ask what was promised to the other parties for those votes, just say “Nothing, Mr. Speaker,” and sit back down. That’s it. Stop just delivering more useless talking points. Make the Conservatives look stupid by not taking their bait. This shouldn’t be hard, and yet, they keep making this same, dumb mistake, over and over again.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Mélanie Joly for a lavender jacket over a white collared shirt and black slacks, and to Terry Beech for a tailored navy suit with a crisp white shirt and a cranberry red tie. Style citations go out to  Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe for a medium brown jacket over a white shirt, black striped diamond-patterns tie and blue jeans, and to Leah Taylor Roy for a cream sleeveless jacket over a high-necked black top. Dishonourable mention goes out to Marilyn Gladu for a black dress with yellow and white stripes along the front under a black sweater, to Anna Roberts for a long dark mustard jacket over a black turtleneck and slacks, and to Marci Ien for a moonstone yellow jacket over a black scoop-necked top and slacks.

One thought on “QP: Constant questions to other opposition parties”

  1. I despair at the lack of chops the LIBERALS display in the HOC. Perhaps their tongues will be sharper in opposition for 4 years. Politics today reflects the society we find ourselves in…rude, classless and ignorant. Liberals need a tough SOB as leader and ministers who know how to really put the lying Cons in their place. Unfortunately this version of Trudeau just doesn’t have the chops. Leadership review anyone?

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