QP: Griping about the Colbert appearance

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The prime minister was still in New York, but his deputy was present once again, while the Conservatives were revved up because this was their Supply Day, and they were busy gathering clips from their prepared speeches in favour of their non-confidence motion. With that in mind, Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and he immediately demanded that the Bloc vote against the government. The Speaker warned him about questions being related to administrative responsibilities of government, but Jean-Yves Duclos stood up anyway to denounce that Poilievre told people dental care doesn’t exist. Poilievre again listed the government’s supposed failures to demand the Bloc vote against them, and Soraya Martinez Ferrada decried that Conservative MP Jeremy Patzer got a trip paid for to Florida from a pro-life church. Poilievre switched to English to recite slogans and demand an election, and Mark Holland listed things the Conservatives would cut. Poilievre accused Holland of coming unglued before saying completely untrue things about pharmacare and demanded an election. Holland pointed out his scare-mongering before saying that free diabetes medication and contraceptions are actually freedom. Poilievre again claimed that pharmacare would “ban women” from using their existing drug plans before trotting out the “nuclear winter” line to demand an election. Karina Gould got up to say that freedom doesn’t look like trips to Florida to meet with anti-abortion groups.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and demanded “justice” for seniors via enhancing OAS, and Steve MacKinnon listed efforts to help seniors and that the Bloc voted against it. Therrien declared that seniors deserve better than partisanship, and again demanded the OAS enhancement. MacKinnon again noted that the Bloc has always voted against more help for seniors, including dental care.

Jagmeet Singh demanded the Liberals stand up to Doug Ford around private health care, and Mark Holland said that if he wants to talk courage, the NDP capitulated to the Conservatives when bullied. Singh switched to French, and swapped François Legault for Ford, but asked the same thing. Holland urged parliamentarians to stand up to what the Conservatives would do to the healthcare system.

Round two, and Melissa Lantsman blamed the government for food insecurity before demanding an election (Guilbeault: Here is a quote from the Insurance Bureau of Canada about how this was the worst year on record for losses; Your leader goes to private events with oil executives, while are the amount of people in your riding getting the carbon rebate), John Barlow also falsely blamed food insecurity on the carbon levy (Wilkinson: It would be great if you could use facts, and here are great clean growth projects; Brière: We set up a school food programme to help an additional 400,000 children), and Luc Berthold decried housing in Quebec and blamed immigration and “inflationary spending” (Freeland: Inflation is back on target, and your agenda is austerity; Champagne: Look at all of our investments in Quebec).

Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe decried the failure of the federal government to force provinces to redistribute asylum seekers (Chiang: We will help Quebec with asylum seekers; Duclos: Some platitudes).

Tracy Gray decried a lack of housing before demanding an election (Fragiskatos: Homelessness is terrible, but you have no plan other than to use encampments as props), Marty Morantz read some slogans before decrying the capital gains changes (Freeland: We believe in tax fairness and teachers or nurses shouldn’t pay taxes at a higher rate than a millionaire), and Jamil Jivani blamed the government for a rapist getting parole (O’Connell: The Parole Board makes independent decisions of government, and you would rather politicise the justice system for partisan gain).

Heather McPherson complained about healthcare cuts in Alberta (Holland: We are investing in healthcare), and Bonita Zarrillo claimed that Duclos threatened dental care if the government doesn’t get its way—which is ridiculous (Holland: Yay dental care, and we want to keep expanding it while the Conservatives want to cut it).

Round three saw more questions on the caribou protection measures in Quebec (Guilbeault: You have no plan for the environment, while we have done everything we could to find solutions to complex problems), meeting climate targets (Guilbeault: GHGs are at their lowest levels in 25 years), Amira Elghawaby’s emails not being released on demand (Duclos: All government officers have the same responsibility to comply with the Act, and we will ensure this is the case here; Khera: They will be turned over), softwood lumber (Ng: We stand up for workers and our forestry sector; You want us to sign bad trade deals and capitulate; Freeland: We stood up to Trump and won, and you voted against free trade with Ukraine; Gould: Same answer), meeting with oil and gas lobbyists (Guilbeault: Here is a quote of yours in support of the carbon levy, and wondered why the NDP have caved to the Conservatives), and TMX (Wilkinson: We have reduced emissions while you guys have caved).

Overall, it was slightly less of an acrimonious day than I might have expected, but you can only milk so much acrimony out of constantly repeated slogans. Poilievre was proffering in fictions, particularly around things like the plans for pharmacare, or any of the subsequent talking points about food insecurity or housing challenges. Yes, people are lining up at food banks, and the food banks will tell you that it’s because the provinces have either gutted rent control (Ontario) or didn’t have it in the first place, and that has affected those populations. It’s not because of the carbon levy, where they are getting more back in rebates, but nobody wants to correct the record on this. And speaking for the provinces, we had demands from both the Bloc and the NDP about “forcing” premiers to do things, which is not how this works, and it’s ridiculous that this is that is being asked in the federal House of Commons.

Otherwise, there were a litany of clip-harvesting questions of faux outrage because Trudeau called the softwood lumber issue “small” on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert last night. This is just trying to find something to be angry about, and while these same MPs kept insisting that Trudeau kept capitulating to American president after American president on the issue, they either have no memory that this is how Americans operate, and that when Harper came to a “deal,” the industry was outraged because it was a bad deal for Canada. But hey, outrage clips don’t farm themselves.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Blaine Calkins for a dark grey suit with a blueberry shirt and purple paisley tie, and to Arielle Kayabaga for a pink top and jacket over black slacks. Style citations go out to Pam Damoff for a red-orange jacket over a black dress with a tight floral pattern, and to Steven Guilbeault for a grey-green jacket over a white shirt, black tie, and tan-brown slacks.

One thought on “QP: Griping about the Colbert appearance”

  1. I think what will be remembered in America about the Colbert discussion of the lumber issue is Trudeau’s statement about how homes could be cheaper. Its doubtful that even 1% of Colbert’s audience had ever understood the impact of the softwood lumber tariffs on their housing prices.

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