QP: Look at the interest rate decision, not at the NSICOP report!

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While Wednesdays are normal the day the prime minister is present and answers everything, he was instead off to France to take part in D-Day commemorations, and while his deputy was not scheduled to be here, she was after all. With Trudeau gone, one of the other leaders didn’t bother to show up. Pierre Poilievre was present, and started off in French, and he wondered about the NSICOP report about which MPs were implicated, and repeated the same in English in the same time period. Dominic LeBlanc said that no government would release security information in public, and said that if the leader opposite got his security clearance, he could read the confidential information for himself rather that casting aspersions on the floor of the House of Commons. Poilievre stuck to English to raise the AG report on SDTC, and demanded the information be turned over to the RCMP. Chrystia Freeland said that it was no surprise that Poilievre didn’t want to talk about the economic thanks to the good news that rates decreased. Poilievre returned to French to worry about daycares in Montreal where people need police escorts, and demanded changes to the Criminal Code. Freeland, however, reiterated her same response in French. Poilievre switched back to English to demand the release of the report that the Parliamentary Budget Officer claimed he was being gagged about. Freeland ignored this entirely in order to praise the Oilers winning their conference as part of a “good week for Canada.” Poilievre read the letter sent to the PBO asking him not to disclose the report in question, and Freeland said that it was Poilievre under a gag order, who couldn’t say anything nice about Canada. (Seriously?! Honest to Hermes, this is ridiculous).

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and he demanded action on the NSICOP revelations of MPs as witting accomplices of foreign governments. LeBlanc praised Therrien’s cooperation on the foreign interference file. Therrien reiterated his demand, and Freeland rose to praise the economic good news of the interest rate decision. 

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and he too demanded action on those revelation, noting that he has requested a classified briefing but railed that the prime minister has done nothing for months. LeBlanc said he was pleased to hear that he had requested the briefing before patting himself on the back for the action on combatting foreign interference so far. Singh repeated his question in French, and Freeland again got up to praise the economic good news.

Round two, and Michael Chong accused the government of inaction on foreign interference (LeBlanc: We have taken action when your government did nothing going back to 2013; No government would reveal names under these circumstances), Luc Berthold tried in French (LeBlanc: It’s concerning to see how irresponsible our colleagues across the way are, and you should ask your leader to accept a classified briefing), Andrew Scheer demanded the “secret” report on the carbon price effects be released (MacKinnon: You talk about gag orders, but we haven’t seen Arnold Viersen for days; van Koeverden: Happy World Environment Day!), and Leslyn Lewis stood up to lie both the effects of the carbon levy (Freeland: Hooray for the interest rate decision!)

Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe accused the government of doing nothing about asylum seekers (Miller: You want to speed up asylum claims processing but you are opposing the budget measures that would do so).

Tim Uppal got up to again demand the release of the “secret” report (MacKinnon: Most households get more money back; van Koeverden: The PBO says he got his math wrong), Dan Mazier read a script on the same (Hutchings: Now that we passed the fall economic statement, the rural top-up is going up), and Richard Lehoux read the same script in French (Duclos: Eight out of ten families get more back than they pay where it applies).

Lori Idlout demanded that Nutrition North be reformed finally (Vandal: We are committed to ensuring that the retail subsidy does to northerners, and we are in the middle of a review and an audit), and Lisa Marie Barron appeared by video to demand support for their Supply Day motion on price caps for groceries (Champagne: Hooray for the interest rate decision, and we should all push for Walmart and Costco to join the grocery code of conduct).

Round three saw possibly slanderous questions on Randy Boissonnault’s business dealings (MacKinnon: The minister answered these questions at committee yesterday). There were also questions on the Auditor General’s reports (Duclos: We have been reforming tendering processes; Why are you not sharing today’s good economic news?; Your leader told people dental care doesn’t exists when thousands of seniors in your riding have availed themselves of it; Champagne: We took action following allegations; Hooray for the interest rate decision), and the plight of southern resident killer whales (van Koeverden: Hooray for our climate change measures).

Overall, it was a complete dog’s breakfast, between the scattershot questions that had little coherence off the top, before they went to the repetitive scripts in order to harvest clips, to the absolute clown show response from Chrystia Freeland who kept inappropriately using responses to crow about this morning’s interest rate decision, and how this is a great week for Canada, including because of the Oilers’ win, and I just could not. While the questions around the Auditor General’s report were torqued beyond all credulity, the questions on the NSICOP report deserved serious answers, and while we got one or two from Dominic LeBlanc about how it would behove opposition leaders to accept classified briefings so that they actually know what is going on rather than casting aspersions, Freeland’s response to these questions was beyond the pale. If anything, it made the government look like they had something to hide on this file, which is absolutely not what they want to do. I cannot believe that the communications geniuses in the PMO didn’t see that, and went ahead with this boneheaded strategy. What an absolute disaster.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Julie Dzerowicz for white jacket over a white top and black slacks, and to Marc Dalton for a dark grey suit with a crisp white shirt and a bright pink tie. Style citations go out to Alain Therrien for a light blue jacket with a loud windowpane pattern over a white shirt, faded blue jeans and with a light blue tie, and to Pam Damoff for a button-up collared dress with faded pastel patterns.

2 thoughts on “QP: Look at the interest rate decision, not at the NSICOP report!”

  1. you know better than I, but I didn’t find this qp worse than most

  2. I don’t like the Liberals trying to meet Polievre on his terms, and yet I know pushing back on a bully can be surprisingly effective. But Krystia Freeland isn’t good at it. I doubt if her heart is in it, either.

    What was the NSICOP committee thinking, throwing out non-specific accusations like that to the public? There couldn’t be a more effective way of undermining confidence in the system. I can’t see how they could think it could be a productive strategy.

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