QP: A late pivot to shouting about Ukraine

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It being Wednesday, the prime minister was present to answer all questions, as is his wont, while his deputy was elsewhere. Most of the other leaders were present again today, which is great to see, even if they take up most of the spotlight on Wednesdays. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and after reciting his slogans, and then took a swipe at the Bloc before accusing the prime minister of stoking inflation with “tax hikes” on April 1st (blatantly untrue), and wondered if they would need an election on carbon pricing. Justin Trudeau recited that the carbon rebates give eight our of ten households more back than they pay, and that Conservatives don’t want to help with affordability or climate change. Poilievre insisted that the PBO said that most families will pay more and be negatively impacted—again, not what he actually said—and then said there was a “second tax” coming to Quebec—also not true—and wondered if the Bloc would support the government on this. Trudeau said that if Poilievre listened to Canadians, he would know the cost of inaction is high on farmers and fishers, while the government’s plan puts more money in people’s pockets. Poilievre switched to English to again recite his slogans and repeat his demand to cut the price increase or face a non-confidence motion, and Trudeau reiterated that the plan puts more money back into the pockets of most Canadians than they spend. Poilievre recited a bunch of falsehoods about the impact of the price, and repeated his demand. Trudeau again stated that the choice is more money in the pockets of Canadians. Poilievre raised the numbers from the PBO, knowing full well they are out of context, and Trudeau again repeated that people get more back than they pay.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and he raised that the National Assembly voted on yet another unanimous motion to demand that Quebec get full powers for immigration, as though that means anything. Trudeau insisted that they were friends with the Quebec government, and Quebec already has more powers regarding immigration than any other province. Blanchet decried that Quebec pays for asylum seekers and demanded a billion dollars in compensation. Trudeau noted that they are compensating Quebec for asylum seekers. 

Blake Desjarlais rose for the NDP, and demanded the government not cut any funds to Indigenous Services, and Trudeau insisted that they have tripled investments and have come to settlement agreements, and that they were still doing the work. Desjarlais decried that this was insufficient, Trudeau reiterated his same points about the investments made.

Round two, and Poilievre got back up to replay yesterday’s attempt to pick off Nova Scotia MPs on the carbon levy, and used the misleading PBO figure to demand the rebate figure (Trudeau: The federal price is a backstop and they chose to adopt it; Most families get more money than they pay; You cannot take the PBO’s report out of context), and the tried for Alberta (Trudeau: $1800 is the carbon rebate in Alberta for a family of four; Here is the Finance Canada calculation and it’s a net positive), and Ontario (Trudeau: The net benefit for Ontario families is a positive).

Blachet got back up to wax poetic about the polls in Quebec (Trudeau: The only poll that counts is the ballot box, and we get more seats in Quebec than the Bloc), and chirped about cue cards (Trudeau: Praise for dental care, which seniors in Quebec can access).

Poilievre raised a motion raised in the Newfoundland and Labrador opposing the carbon price increase (Trudeau: Here is the net benefit for average households in the province; We had three carbon price elections and won the all), and the leftover carbon levies that have not yet been redistributed (Trudeau: You are complaining about money you would never distribute).

Alexandre Boulerice raised a report calling us the most polluted country in North America (Trudeau: That makes a nice clip, but this as about the forest fire situation and nobody else has a credible plan while we have taken concrete action), and Leah Gazan demanded fair wages for shelter workers, never mind that is a provincial responsibility (Trudeau: We have been working to raise wages for women and Indigenous communities, and we do it with the different jurisdictions across the country).

Round three saw Poilievre worry about per capita GDP and the effect of the carbon price on it (Trudeau: Our population is growing faster than other G7 countries; The carbon price puts more money back in most people’s pockets and builds a stronger economy; BC has had their own price since 2008 and we have no involvement in it, and he is wrong on his facts there; You might have done some research if you wanted to rail against our programme). It also saw questions on increasing OAS for all seniors (Trudeau: Older seniors have higher costs), a collective fund for municipal housing (Trudeau: The Housing Accelerator Fund in Quebec went to the province who matched the funds to help build houses faster), car thefts (Trudeau: You voted against our plans to go after organised crime, money laundering, and border security; You can’t actually scan 60,000 shipping containers per day), more possible ArriveCan contracts (Trudeau: Authorities are looking into the processes, but look how quickly you pivoted away from the topic of Ukraine), called Trudeau a hypocrite on Ukraine (Trudeau: That is weaksauce, and he’s flailing), Canadians don’t need to live this way, call an election (Trudeau: Look at how desperate he is to justify his vote against Ukraine), a national school food programme—which is provincial jurisdiction (Trudeau: Wait for the budget), the Canada Disability Benefit vs MAiD (Trudeau: You are better than that question, there will be more to say on that in the coming months).

Overall, this was the “bro-iest” QP in ages, in the words of one of my fellow journalist, and there was a lot of testosterone in the air as Poilievre thumped his chest about their promised non-confidence motion, as though it were a real threat (it’s not) but Poilievre was determined to play it up. He also continues to misleading use the “average” costs of the carbon levy that the PBO put in his report, which just confused the issue because the whole point of the distributional analysis was to show how it works better for people in lower income quintiles than those in the highest. And can Trudeau actually say this? No, he can’t. He did come out with some Department of Finance figures about net benefits for households, but again, it’s not apples-to-apples, and he can’t or won’t explain how Poilievre is using these numbers to lie to people. You can’t just say “You’re using them out of context,” as he did once today—he needs to spell it out, which, of course, the Liberals refuse to do, and it’s going to sink them.

Meanwhile, Trudeau managed to engineer a pivot to talk of Ukraine at the end of QP by way of a backbench suck-up question, which devolved into shouting and more testosterone. It was weird the way that this whole pivot played out, but did manage to show that there is still an element of spontaneity or ability to be extemporaneous when it’s Poilievre versus Trudeau, but it’s limited, and the fact that it turned to complete acrimony didn’t help matters any.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Stephanie Kusie for a long-sleeved white dress with a notched neckline, and to Eric Melillo for a light grey suit with a white shirt and a pink tie. Style citations go out to Blake Desjarlais for a dark grey suit with a white shirt and a black floral ascot in place of a tie, and to Melissa Lantsman for a fluorescent melon pink jacket over a white top and black slacks. Dishonourable mention goes out to Monique Pauzé for a dark yellow jacket over a black top and slacks, and to Kerry-Lynne Findlay for a black jacket and slacks over a yellow striped top.