QP: Bizarre accusations, crying about being shushed

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As the countdown to the budget release was underway, neither the prime minister nor his deputy were present, and while she had the excuse of being in the budget lock-up meeting with journalists, I’m not sure the PM’s excuse. Most of the other leaders were also present, and Pierre Poilievre led off in French, read off his slogans, and then claimed that the “millionaire prime minister’s” friends who never pay for the cost of his spending, but welders and single mothers. François-Philippe Champagne insisted that the Conservatives have no vision and no plan, and nothing but new slogans, while a country that has ambition is one that invests. Poilievre insisted that their vision was to replace his boss, and complained about the size of the debt and deficit. Champagne noted that slogans don’t build homes, pave roads, or create jobs. Poilievre switched to English to repeat his slogans, and railed that seniors and single mothers who foot the bill for the government spending and not their “wealthy friends.” Anita Anand listed supports for people while remaining fiscally prudent. Poilievre listed other “working class” people that he is in support of, and Anand repeated her same assurances. Poilievre insisted that the Liberals are the problem and not the solution, but Sean Fraser took this one, mocked Poilievre’s statements about electricians capturing lighting or welders using their bare hands, and suggested he talked to people with real jobs—as Poilievre walked out during said answer.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, claiming that Quebec was being “cheated” out of housing funds, and demanded they pay their fair share of housing funds immediately. Fraser said that the Bloc are not defining housing policy in Quebec while they have an agreement with the provincial government to build 8,000 homes. Therrien demanded a second time, and this time Pablo Rodriguez got up to rant about the Bloc not doing anything but pick fights.

Alexandre Boulerice rose for the NDP, and praised Biden’s policies in the US, to which Champagne took issue with the premise, and praised their work in fixing competition in the country. Laurel Collins complained that the government wasn’t going to implement a windfall tax on oil and gas companies. Jonathan Wilkinson got up to list the measures they are taking to reduce emissions. 

Round two, and Melissa Lantsman raised David Dodge’s trickle-down economics concerns before reciting slogans (Anand: Our fiscal markers are very strong, and that the democracy was “palpable”), Dan Albas gave more of the same (Boissonnault: Let’s compare our record to your government’s), and Pierre Paul-Hus gave some “dollar-for-dollar” slogans in French (Duclos: We asked the one percent to pay more in order to give every one else more help).

Martin Champoux complained that the federal government planned to intervene at the Supreme Court on Law 21 (Rodriguez: There are 35 Quebec MPs who are proud Quebecker and will stand up for Quebec; Virani: We will defend the Charter of Rights).

Lianne Rood read some hysterical “letters from constituent” (Hutchings: You could pass the Fall Economic Statement at any time so the rural top-up can be doubled; One of my constituents pointed out how much better off he is with the rebate), and Warren Steinley pre-trashed the budget (Wilkinson: The carbon levy is an affordability issue, and you ran on a platform that included a carbon price).

Matthew Green yelled about rental prices—which is provincial jurisdiction (Fraser: We just signed over $93 million to your city to accelerate housing construction), and Leah Gazan wanted more action on Indigenous homelessness (Fraser: There is a need for more affordable housing which is why we put $4 billion to deal with Indigenous people in community and the same for those in urban environments).

Round three saw yet more questions on the carbon price (Hutchings: We have programmes to help Canadians; Duclos: Your leader built six housing units as minister while we’re building 8000 in Quebec; Your leader needs to apologise to Quebec mayors for insulting them). It also saw questions on an app regarding import duties at the border (LeBlanc: We work with committees and I met with the president of CBSA on this matter, and I have trust in his ability to do the right thing), ArriveCan (LeBlanc: Just because you repeat something that isn’t correct doesn’t make it true), dental care (Holland: We are working with providers and opening up a new portal), long-term care (Fraser: We have to recognise the challenge of developers buying up existing units, which is why we launched an acquisition fund), an increase in denied claims for veterans disability benefits (Petitpas Taylor: We have invested an initial $11 billion since 2015).

Overall, it was a much louder and rowdier day than we have seen in a while, which turned into a Point of Order meltdown after QP as Conservative MP Ed Fast whinged that NDP MP Rachel Blaney told him to “shut up” and “shush” as he was heckling, and Blaney was the one punished for refusing to withdraw the remarks. The Speaker continues to be fairly useless, and while he was calling out individual MPs for being especially loud today, just pointing them out has no consequences (because they have learned that a system built around shame doesn’t work if you’re shameless). If they lose questions or be threatened with not being recognised, maybe that would be something, but he won’t even do that.

This aside, there was some utterly bizarre accusations being lobbed around, such as the federal government being blamed for the situation of unclaimed bodies in Newfoundland, which was so completely off the mark that it boggles the mind. As well, one Conservative trying to call Wilkinson “Climate Ken” (as the counterpart to Catherine McKenna as “Climate Barbie”) is so juvenile that I can barely even. These are supposed to be adults dealing with the business of the nation, and this kind of schoolyard bullshit is enough to make one despair.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Anita Anand for a blueberry jacket over a white collared shirt and black slacks, and to Maninder Sidhu for a tailored dark grey suit over a white shirt and a dark metallic pink tie. Style citations go out to Gerald Soroka for a blue-grey suit with a pale yellow shirt and brown tie, and to Marci Ien for a large, shapeless dress in bright colours. Dishonourable mention goes out to Filomena Tassi for a bright yellow jacket over a black dress with grey piping, with a grey patterned scarf.