QP: Sniping in advance of the eclipse

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The first day back from the Easter break, and Eclipse Day, and neither the prime minister nor his deputy were present, having spent the morning in Trenton making the defence policy update announcement. Most of the other leaders were present today, for what it’s worth. After the introduction of Jamil Jivani as the newest Conservative MP, Pierre Poilievre led off in French, reciting his slogans and accusing government of being “pyromaniacs” fuelling inflation. (That’s not what was driving inflation). Jonathan Wilkinson read a statement about investing in Canadians. Poilievre recited a bank report to claim the government was stoking inflation, and Wilkinson read more talking points about those investments. Poilievre switched to English to repeat his pyromaniac line, and Wilkinson again read lines about investing in Canadians. Poilievre went on about a “carbon tax election,” and recited more slogans. Sean Fraser got up to scoff about the lack of seriousness of Poilievre’s supposed plan. Poilievre insisted that his plan would lower prices for farms, food and homes, and Fraser responded by listed Poilievre’s record a “housing” minister (even though he really wasn’t).

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and he railed that the government was trying to tell Quebeckers how to build housing, and listed all of their supposed failures along the way. Pablo Rodriguez was incredulous that the Bloc was against housing, child care, or school food. Therrien railed that federal government was holding Quebec hostage, and Rodriguez reminded that that they were not the Quebec government. 

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and railed about corporate handouts, and went on a tangent about Conservative corporate handouts and if the Liberals would carry them forward. Wilkinson read more of his talking points about investments and fairness. Singh repeated his question in French, and this time Fraser got up to talk about some of their housing announcements from last week.

Round two, and Jasraj Hallan read some confused and angry word salad about the “woke” carbon levy (Boissonnault: Here’s a woman from rural Alberta who gets more back in carbon rebates than she spends), Leslyn Lewis face a slightly more measured script (Wilkinson: You should stop misleading Canadians on the carbon price, and 200 economists corrected the record), and Pierre Paul-Hus accused the government of only doing photo ops and not doing work (Duclos: We are investing in housing and you haven’t apologised to Quebeckers; Hundreds of housing units were built in your riding and you were not there).

Denis Trudel demanded the government gave money to Quebec without strings for housing (Fraser: We are looking for solutions, not disputes; Rodriguez: You are the undisputed champions of squabbles).

Tracy Gray was a shocked about how much Canadians need to spend of their income housing (Fraser: Your plans won’t build housing; You oppose our practical measures to make it easier to build houses more quickly), and Richard Martel blamed deficits on housing affordability (Duclos: We signed an agreement with Quebec to provide for the most amount of housing in history).

Blake Desjarlais cited someone in his riding who can’t afford a new home (Fraser: We have put investments on the table for low-income households), and Lori Idlout raised grocery prices in the North (Jones: We have doubled the investment in Nutrition North, and we are working with the Territories).

Round three saw yet more questions housing demand (Sudds: Our programmes support parents across the country; Duclos: Your leader built a whole six units when he was minister; Fraser: Your leader is actively campaigning on policies that will cut housing plans). It also saw questions on immigration levels (Miller: We have an excellent relationship with the Quebec government), deficits (Wilkinson: You have no plans; Anand: We will support vulnerable Canadians while being fiscally prudent), safe supply policies (Saks: I am also concerned about these reports and hope the BC government will respond), banning assault rifles and Poilievre’s endorsement by Alex Jones (LeBlanc: Thanks for your long years of service, and we are not banning hunting rifles), and the New Horizons funding requests (O’Regan: Let me find out what’s going on).

Overall, there was some blessed relief that there were no eclipse jokes, but at the same time, it was mostly just the same old recitation of slogans and talking points back and forth that was entirely unilluminating. The focus was mostly on housing rather than the increase in the carbon levy as the focus was the previous few weeks, which isn’t too surprising, but again, it was about the usual slogans about “photo ops” and “bureaucracy” and not “building,” as though the federal government actually has that capacity. (They don’t).

The only other thing I would mention was Conservative MP Stephen Ellis’ assertion that the prime minister was a narcissist during his question, and when the Deputy Speaker cautioned him about his language, Ellis asserted that after all of his years of practice, that was his diagnosis. Ellis was a family doctor, not a psychologist or psychiatrist. For him to declare that this was his “diagnosis” is just more of the childish sniping that defines the current era.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Bardish Chagger for a cream salwar kameez with green and blue patterns across it, with the shalwar being dark green, and to Maninder Sidhu for a grey kurta with a lighter grey waistcoat over it. Style citations go out to Denis Trudel for a dark grey suit with an orange shirt with black polka dots and a black tie, and to Sonia Sidhu for a cream jacket over a black top with pink florals and navy slacks.