The prime minister had initially indicated that the would be present, but when the time came, he was not. His deputy was present for a second day in a row, in the wake of the by-election losses, but also in the wake of the news that the inflation headline figure has returned to target, and which I fully expected the Liberals to be insufferable about. All of the other leaders were present, unlike yesterday, and Pierre Poilievre led off in French, raised the by-election losses, falsely called the federal government as having been responsible for the largest expansion of government in history, and wondered how the Bloc could support them—which really wasn’t a question for government. Chrystia Freeland got up to praise the inflation numbers, as expected. Poilievre dismissed this as cold comfort for people, and again asked why the Bloc supports them (which is not a question for government), and Freeland again praised the inflation numbers while calling Poilievre economically incompetent. Poilievre switched to English to again raise the by-election losses and recited his slogans. Freeland repeated her good news talking points in English. Poilievre again called this cold comfort, called Freeland incompetent, and raised the fictitious “second carbon tax” as taking a huge hit on the economy. Freeland insisted that the inflation news was good news for Canadians and bad news for the Conservatives. Poilievre repeated his fiction of the “second carbon tax,” which is not a Thing, and demanded an election. Freeland recited good news talking points about housing, repeating the announcement she made yesterday on mortgage amortization.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and first addressed to Poilievre that they got fourth place in LaSalle—Émard, before demanding support for their bill on expanding pensions for seniors under age 75. Freeland recited talking points about supports they have added for seniors, particularly those most vulnerable. Blanched again demanded a royal recommendation for the Bloc bill, and Freeland would not indicate support for that bill.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP and declared the Liberals “done,” then demanded price caps on certain groceries. Freeland hoped that they would set partisanship aside in order to congratulate Canadians for getting inflation back under control, before noting they have increased taxes on corporations. Singh switched to French to repeat his same declaration before demanding and end to “real estate giants” ripping people off. Freeland scoffed at the notion that the Liberals are teaming up with the Conservatives (earned Conservatives applause) and then slammed the Conservatives. 

Freeland openly scoffs at Singh’s talking point that the Liberals and Conservatives work together.
Conservatives applauded. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) September 17, 2024

Round two, and Melissa Lantsman again tried the lines about Mark Carney taking Freeland’s job (Freeland: I’m glad to talk about feminism, because we implemented child care, contraception, and ensure women can control their own bodies), Leslyn Lewis read the same talking points (Khera: Your leader had misogynistic hashtags on his videos and you voted against women’s rights to choose; Gould: You talk about women but don’t support policies that support them, and you’re the real fake feminists), and Michael Barrett read slogans and taunts about Carney (Freeland: We believe in listening to experts from across the country, whereas you get your advice from a Loblaws lobbyist, Elon Musk, and Tucker Carlson; Gould: You only know how to denigrate people you disagree with).

When Lantsman tried to belittle Freeland, she reminded her that she stood up to Trump and is not phased by schoolyard insults from the “MAGA maple syrup crowd.” #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) September 17, 2024

Blanchet got back up to demand that royal recommendation (MacKinnon: You voted against lowering the retirement age for seniors; We are delivering for Quebeckers).

Luc Berthold recited slogans to blame the government and the Bloc for poverty (Martinez Ferrada: You only want to cut funding for construction and rip up agreements with cities; Lebouthillier: You cut to those who needed it in the regions), and Jacques Gourde tried to further tie the Bloc to the government (St-Onge: You guys only cut and Quebeckers don’t like it; Champagne: We are building Canada for the twenty-first century).

Blake Desjarlais raised the number of Indigenous deaths by police (Battiste: We need to do more round Indigenous policing, and have put this before the committee but you haven’t supported it), and Lori Idlout demanded documents around an abuser at residential schools who died before being charged (O’Connell: We will work on this case together).

Round three saw more questions on the Bloc supporting the government (Anand: We are investing in the most vulnerable but you vote against them; MacKinnon: You just confirmed you plan hundreds of thousands of layoffs), carbon prices (Sudds: We have made historic investments in Canadians who need it but you would cut those programmes; Wilkinson: We have a progressive rebate system that helps more Canadians), asylum seekers (Miller: We are working on a plan, but we shouldn’t “instrumentalise” things as some provinces are doing; It’s dangerous to have politicians make hay on the backs of asylum seekers), crime stats (Virani: The bail problem now rests on the provinces), fisheries quotas (Lebouthillier: Herring stocks are suffering; Climate change in the Gulf of St. Lawrence is affecting all stocks), increasing the Canada Disability Benefit (Khera: Hooray for the benefit, while you take orders from the Conservatives), and plans to transport toxic material over the Ambassador Bridge (Champagne: We have revived Windsor with our investments).

Dancho is outright lying about crime stats of child exploitation. The rise in stats are because of more consistent reporting by police, not because the Liberals have enabled it. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) September 17, 2024

#QP, today and every day.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-09-17T20:38:19.580Z

Overall, things went about as expected, with Poilievre making some hay about the by-election losses (but not that much, considering his team also lost in both races), and Freeland responding by crowing about the inflation numbers. She did not, however, point out that inflation has been returned to normal without slashing the budget or killing the carbon levy, so all of the things that Poilievre says caused inflation were false, and that he has no credibility on the subject. But she didn’t. She did, however, endure a second day of Conservatives trying to police feminism and trying to belittle her about the suppositions around Mark Carney’s role, but at least she was better about fighting back on that today than she was yesterday. Nevertheless, once again the Liberals are falling back on the trap of talking points that border on toxic positivity rather than being frank about the economic situation, and how the macro doesn’t always translate.

Otherwise, Jagmeet Singh’s talking points continued to sound hollow and a little bit pathetic to try and paint the Liberals and Conservatives as working together, and Freeland smashed that one down too. The Bloc, meanwhile, have been focused on their private members’ bill on expanding GIS to people aged 65-75, given that the over-75 population had previously been increased (because they have higher costs and more depleted savings). The government really didn’t defend their choices  today as they normally would (or perhaps should) and instead tried to needle the Bloc, possibly into voting against them at the next non-confidence motion. I’m not sure just how sound this strategy really is, but I’m not in politics. Also, could the Speaker actually enforce the rule that the questions have to be about the administrative responsibilities of the government? Because none of Poilievre’s questions were about that.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Blaine Calkins for a navy suit with a crisp white shirt and a grey-pink tie, and to Dominique Vien for an off-the-shoulder salmon pink dress under a grey-rose shawl. Style citations go out to Rosemarie Falk for a long-sleeved black dress with a tight brown and beige floral pattern, and to Martin Shields for a tan brown jacket over a dark blue shirt and matching striped tie and black slacks. Dishonourable mention goes out to Gudie Hutchings for a long black shirt-dress with giant mustard yellow florals.