For Monday-on-a-Tuesday QP, the prime minister was off in Philadelphia, but his deputy was present, as were most of the other leaders. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, rattled off some slogans, and accused the Bloc and government of scheming to raise gas taxes when other countries have cut their taxes, and mentioned his demand to cut fuel taxes over the summer. Chrystia Freeland said that she was glad he raised inflation because it allows her to mention this morning’s inflation figures, which showed another decrease thanks to their responsible management. Poilievre switched to English to insist that the government shouldn’t pat themselves on the back because inflation is still 35 percent above target, and repeats the demand to cut gas taxes. Freeland noted that he doesn’t even know that the target is between one and three percent. Poilievre returned to French to insist the target was two percent, and then lambasted the government for not locking in longer-term treasury bonds, meaning higher government interest payments. Freeland insisted he was incompetent, and Poilievre returned to English to call her incompetent, and repeat his lines about treasury bonds. Freeland suggested he was grouchy because he doesn’t like that inflation is at a three-year low. Poilievre switched to a demand to support their motion on banning all hard drugs for all times. Freeland pointed out that Poilievre was wearing more make-up than she was—got a warning from the Speaker—and after withdrawing the remark pointed out that Poilievre was phoney to the core, and that he didn’t really care about the economy or people dying from opioids, but only wants to score partisan points.

Freeland: The Conservative leader is wearing more make-up than I am.
Fergus warns her not to comment on the appearance of others. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) May 21, 2024

Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and lamented a lack of government interest in the Francophonie. Freeland says that the situation of French in Quebec is not a joke, and they are taking it seriously. Normandin took a swipe at Francis Drouin and the Liberals sticking by him, and Freeland repeated her statement of support for the French language. 

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, raised the pending arrest International a criminal Court warrants for senior Hamas and Israeli officials and demanded to know if the government would support it. Freeland said that they respect the independence of the ICC, condemn Hamas, and doesn’t believe you can draw an equivalence of Hamas’ actions with Israel’s. Singh insisted that it wasn’t the question, and repeated it in French, but got the same answer.

Round two, and Andrew Scheer repeated the demand to cut all gas taxes (Freeland: I’m so glad that I get to point out that inflation is going down and wage increases are outpacing inflation; Wilkinson: Even premier Smith said she gets more back in the carbon rebates than she paid, and she raised provincial gas taxes), Shannon Stubbs repeated the demand script (Wilkinson: People on modest incomes are better off with the carbon rebates; Your premier raised provincial gas taxes), and Dan Albas took swipes at the prime minister’s travel before he gave the same demand with a BC spin (Wilkinson: Same answer; Freeland: I am astonished by the gall of the Conservatives worrying about people’s road trips when they improperly expensed travel to their own convention).

Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe lamented that the provinces struck a working committee on asylum-seeker distribution (Miller: The government of Quebec proposed it, and the other provinces said yes; The status quo is the Bloc doing nothing for thirty years).

Shelby Kramp-Neuman, Rick a Perkins, and Mel Arnold all repeated the script demanding the gas tax holiday (Fraser: Did you reach out to conservative premiers who are maintaining their own gas taxes?; Holland: I know you’re proud of your new bumper sticker but you also want to take away their child care, dental care and diabetes medication; Sudds: I was just in Manitoba to announce more supports for families), and Anna Roberts complained about the increase in unclaimed bodies and blamed government spending (Holland: Dignity for seniors is things like dental care, when you just want to slash supports).

Alexandre Boulerice accused the government of doing nothing about grocery prices and demanded support for their motion on CEOs paying their “fair share” (Freeland: We have an economic plan for fairness, and we are asking the wealthiest to pay a little more), and Don Davies repeated the demand in English with added rhetorical flourish (Freeland: Same answer).

Round three saw questions on housing in Quebec (Fraser: We have a plan to build houses and you don’t; Duclos: Your memory appears to be quite short and we just built 2200 units in your colleague’s riding), the budget interfering in Quebec’s jurisdiction (Rodriguez: You are voting against help for the people you claim to care about; The Bloc only pick fights and has lost sight of their moral compass), hyperbolic nonsense about the state of drugs in BC hospitals (Holland: The health committee listened to people on the ground, but the Conservatives didn’t join them; We want to use evidence-based policies when you want to repeat failed policies; Saks: The war on drugs didn’t work then and it won’t work now), ArriveCan contractors (LeBlanc: There re ongoing investigations), the Winnipeg Lab documents (Holland: Your party was against the mechanisms that brought these documents to light), more swipes against Francis Drouin (MacKinnon: He has spent more time defending French in this Parliament than any Conservative), and American oil company calling on the RCMP to arrest members of a First Nation (Anandasangaree: We will work to resolve this situation), and fibre-optic lines being damaged by wildfires (Sajjan: We are speaking to the telecom companies).

Overall, there was nothing edifying about the exchanges, but it certainly set the tone for the final five-week stretch. The Conservatives spent the first two thirds of QP on their latest gimmick (the demand for a gas tax holiday), and the remainder on their other grab-bag of talking points and slogans. There isn’t really anything new to any of this, because this is just more of the same attempting to turn the House of Commons into a content studio for social media.

Otherwise, the swipes about Francis Drouin’s comments at committee (that he apologised for and withdrew) weeks ago continue to be brought up, because apparently there is nothing better to do, and Anna Roberts blaming government spending for people not claiming bodies at morgues is bizarre and frankly a little unseemly, but this isn’t the first time that accusation has been made, and I don’t know why they felt the need to return to it. Then again, they will say anything to score a partisan point, and they have shown no limits on what that will be.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Laila Goodridge for a dark blue lapel-less jacket over a matching blue and white dress, and to Glen Motz for a black suit with a blueberry shirt and a purple and blue tie. Style citations go out to Paul Chiang for a grey windowpane jacket over a dark blue shirt and a gold patterned tie, and to Anita Vandenbeld for a black wizard-sleeved smock top with huge pink florals. Dishonourable mention goes out to Gudie Hutchings for a long black shirt-dress with giant yellow, orange and green florals.