QP: Not Question Period, but Catty Bitch Period

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The prime minister was away, off at Rideau Hall to swear-in the replacement minister for Pablo Rodriguez, and while his deputy was supposed to be present today she was not. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and he raised the concerns by the “premier of the Quebec Nation” about asylum seekers and “temporary immigrants,” and who said he wants the Bloc to not support the government next week. This wasn’t a question for the government, but Jean-Yves Duclos got up to answer it anyway, and he first thanked the new cohort of pages in the Chamber, and then said that Poilievre’s statements were laughable. The Speaker then stood up to remind MPs that it’s important that questions have to do with the administrative responsibility of the government. Poilievre got back up to decry this the Bloc were going against not only Legault but also the Parti Québécois position. The Speaker warned again that this was not a matter for government, but Pascale St-Onge got up regardless—which she shouldn’t have—and spoke about how Quebeckers did not appreciate when Legault endorsed the Conservatives. Poilievre got up again and decried the loss of the Quebec lieutenant, and asked something of Pablo Rodriguez, who is no longer in government, so the Speaker moved to the next question. Poilievre switched to English to decry the NDP and their “taping up” their agreement, but again it wasn’t a question for government, to the Speaker moved on. Poilievre made a second swipe at the NDP, calling Jagmeet Singh a “fake, a phoney, and a fraud,” which still wasn’t a question, but Singh got up, and moved into the aisle (which you couldn’t see on CPAC), saying something inaudible to Poilievre, and there was much noise for a couple of minutes. When it died down, the Speaker said that the questions were supposed to be for government for the sake of accountability, that questions should be pointed and tough, and the answers clear, but this required working within the rules.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, who declared that their priority was seniors, and demanded they rise OAS and GIS for seniors under 75. Karina Gould thanked him for asking a real question. Therrien again demanded the increase, and Steve MacKinnon reminded him that they voted against lowering the retirement age, enriching the GIS, and dental care.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and with a hoarse voice, raised the Canadian Medical Association’s worries about privatisation in the healthcare system and a shortages of personnel, which is provincial jurisdiction, but blamed the federal government anyway. Mark Holland praised their work with the provinces, and took a dig at the NDP for capitulating to the Conservatives acting like Mean Girls. Singh got back up and in French, and demanded assistance of the Aging Well At Home programme in Quebec. Holland got back up and again called them out for caving to the Conservatives.

Round two, and Andrew Scheer recited some slogans then called out Singh before demanding an election (Gould: We shouldn’t be politicising pensions, but your own leader will be getting one with millions while working to cut other seniors’ pensions), Scheer asked if Trudeau gave Singh acting lessons (MacKinnon: You were Speaker when Harper went to Davos to raise the retirement age), Tracy Gray read some slogans about the carbon levy (Wilkinson: It would be nice if you could use facts, and getting rid of the carbon rebate will only make people poorer; Guilbeault: We have a new report showing emissions are down, and that without it they would be up 41%), and Eric Melillo got up to recite the same slogans (Sudds: What’s up is the number of child care spaces available for families and women’s participation in the workforce; Speaker: That was not a question for government).

Andréanne Larouche demanded the increase to OAS for seniors under 75 (MacKinnon: You voted against dental care for seniors, which is helping 1400 people in your riding), and Mario Simard decried cuts to the Aging Well at Home programme in Quebec (MacKinnon: We have an important pilot project to help seniors age at home, and there are some excellent projects like this one I am going to describe, but the government of Quebec is blocking it). 

Warren Steinley read some slogans to demand an election (Virani: Let’s review the facts about the carbon price, and took a swipe at the NDP for backing down on it; Speaker: That is not a question for government), and Dan Mazier took more swipes at Singh (Speaker: That is not a question for government).

Don Davies took a swipe at Mark Carney (Guilbeault: Here are some of your own MPs praising the carbon price), and Bonita Zarrillo decried Indigenous housing funding (Hajdu: We have been investing historic amounts to close the infrastructure gap, and there has been no funding lapses).

Round three saw more questions on “swearing-in the Bloc leader” as the new Quebec lieutenant (Duclos: You only want to cut supports for Quebeckers; You should correct when you told people that dental care didn’t exist; We can’t trust your Quebec lieutenant who said they were going to get transit money and your leader humiliated him; over ten thousand Quebeckers have received dental care). There were also questions on asylum seekers and conservative premiers who are refusing to take any (Miller: Where there’s smoke there’s fire; We will work with provinces to ensure they all do their fair share), forestry workers vs protecting caribou (Guilbeault: The Harper government used the same powers to protect a different species and you didn’t object then), Mark Carney not taking a public service position (Gould: You only attack people you disagree with; You only get half a gold star from your leader because you read your slogans but forgot to attack the other parties; If you want to talk about entitlements, your leader has a $2 million pension and lives in government housing while he works to cut the benefits of Canadians), belittling Chrystia Freeland (Khera: Your leader worked to attract men who hate women by using misogynistic hashtags on his videos), support for particular First Nations after their applications were denied (Saks: We pledged directly to work with communities with our fund), and problems around greener home grant application programmes (Wilkinson: This fund is important, and if your constituents have issues, let’s talk).

Overall, I have to say that in nearly sixteen years of daily attendance, I have never seen a day like today. It was not Question Period today, but rather it was Catty Bitch Period. There were vanishingly few questions that actually had to do with the administrative responsibility of government, but were merely just opportunities to slander the other parties, and the Speaker finally started enforcing the rule about questions needing to pertain to the administrative responsibilities of government, and after the first two, the Liberals finally got the clue and stopped rising to answer—err, well, recite pabulum talking points. The fact that on the final swipe from Poilievre that Singh got up and was in the aisle, shouting and pointing at Poilievre, is something I have rarely if ever seen before. Now, Poilievre has spent the whole week using his leaders’ round questions on these kinds of attacks, and until today, the Speaker let it slide, and the Liberals or Justin Trudeau himself stood up to give responses, and the fact that they stopped today was indicative of what this exercise has devolved to.

But there were swipes all around, and no one was innocent. The Bloc accused the Liberals of betraying seniors, the NDP kept trotting out their tired lines about the Conservatives and the Liberals “working together” for the benefit of corporations, and more Conservative MPs kept directing swipes to the Bloc and NDP. The Liberals did not hold back either, taking their own shots at the Bloc for their previous votes around pensions, and calling out the NDP for capitulating to the Conservatives at the first sign of Mean Girls behaviour, and they had their own cutting remarks in there as well. Question Period should have cutting remarks, sure, but if we’re going take the lessons from Westminster on this, cutting remarks are best couched in self-deprecating humour, and there is wit, and there is repartee. That is pretty much extinct here (and Bob Rae was probably the last MP who could pull it off). But just standing up to take shots at someone who can’t respond, all for the sake of a clip you can post on your socials, is beyond the pale. This is not what Parliament is about. This is not how adults behave. And we need to stop treating this as acceptable behaviour, even in times of high tension, because it’s not, and it’s a damning indictment of where all of our MPs are at right now.

Today's unprecedented Catty Bitch #QP.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-09-19T20:56:26.193Z

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Mark Holland for a navy suit with a crisp white shirt and a purple bow-tie, and to Leslyn Lewis for a navy suit with a black and white patterned top. Style citations go out to Judy Sgro for a jacket with an undersea scene printed on it over a white top and black slacks, and to Arnold Viersen for a dark blue jacket, white shirt, bright red ties and grey slacks. Dishonourable mention goes out to Pascale St-Onge for a black suit over a pale yellow top, and to Brenda Shanahan for a black dress with white polka dots under a bright yellow sweater. Special mention to Shelby Kramp-Neuman for a short-sleeved leopard-print dress, and to Shannon Stubbs for a similar dress with a black jacket.

2 thoughts on “QP: Not Question Period, but Catty Bitch Period”

  1. Thank you for your analysis.
    I think remedial lessons in parliamentary procedure might be in order for those who fail to produce a question to the government during Question Period, along with a big fat fine to be paid to a public education program teaching civics to the inhabitants of Canada.

  2. I don’t know, I actually learned something when they reminded the Bloc what they didn’t vote for. And the MP who said they’d take no lessons on feminism was quite passionate.

    But somehow I missed Singh in the aisle. You can stand up to a bully, or refuse to rise to the bait. I’m not sure which makes a dent in Polievre. But one is more parliamentary.

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