QP: It wasn’t about sex!

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The prime minister was on his way to Montreal with Emanuel Macron, and his deputy was elsewhere, while the Conservatives were mid-Supply Day, moving yet another confidence motion that was doomed to fail (not that it matters because the whole point is to get clips for social media). Before things got started, Speaker Fergus said that per his ruling earlier, he offered the leader of the opposition an opportunity to withdraw words he spoke last week, and because he didn’t get such an offer to do so, he would remove three questions from him in the opening round. Poilievre got up and in French, read off their non-confidence motion, and asked the government to support it. Jean-Yves Duclos responded by chiding Poilievre for not even reading the first chapter of an Economics 101 textbook about the independence of the central bank. Poilievre read the slogan-filled motion again in English, and Karina Gould said the simple answer as to who was opposed to the motion was Canadians.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and wondered how the government could be opposed to increased support for seniors. Steve MacKinnon said that it was funny that the Bloc opposed all other measures to help seniors, including dental care. Therrien said that if the government didn’t want to fall, they should support that bill, and Duclos got back up to point out the supports the government has provided and wondered if they really wanted to support the Conservatives. 

Alexandre Boulerice read a letter purportedly to be from a constituent about the housing crisis, to which Duclos reminded him of how damaging Poilievre’s would be. Blake Desjarlais railed about the delay in providing promised Indigenous housing, and Patty Hajdu pointed to the millions of dollars that have flowed to communities.

Round two, and Poilievre got back up to repeat his slogan-filled motion, and wondered if Canadians were opposed to it, why not let them decide in an election (Gould: You’re showing your desperation), gave a distorted look at his record as minister (Fragiskatos: Your slogans are empty, and CMHC is showing record housing starts), repeated his demand for an election (Bendayan: Your members went to Florida to meet with anti-abortion creationists). Eric Melillo took over to make his own demand of an election (Fragiskatos: You will have to explain taking away rebates and how your leader as minster lost 800,000 affordable housing units), and Pierre Paul-Hus deployed the lines about going after hunters (O’Connell we are moving forward on banning assault weapons while you represent the gun lobby; St-Onge: It’s not hunters we are going after, it’s weapons made for war).

Andréanne Larouche repeated the demand for OAS changes (MacKinnon: In your riding, here are the number of people benefitting from dental care, which you voted against), and funds for a Living At Home programme (MacKinnon: Here are more supports for seniors you voted against), and Yves Perron complained that their Supply Management bill was “stuck” in the Senate (MacAulay: We support Supply Management).

Marilyn Gladu read some slogans and demanded an election (Sudds: We all suffer when fellow Canadians are struggling and we have made investments in the social safety net; Gould: The question is why the Conservatives are so desperate for an election), and Brad Redekopp read slogans and repeated the canard from the Saskatchewan government that the carbon levy is costing teachers’ and nurses’ jobs (Wilkinson: You should use facts).

Rachel Blaney worried about veterans at the Invictus Games needing to pay for their own insurance (Petitpas Taylor: We will work with the stakeholders to ensure the situation is rectified), and Gord Johns worried about youth anxiety and paying for therapy (Saks: That’s why we pledged $500 million in this year’s budget).

Round three saw more questions on softwood lumber (Ng: We support the workers, and we have been fighting these tariffs; Wilkinson: Hooray rebates, and the issue you mention is in Quebec who has a cap-and-trade system), the caribou vs forestry (Guilbeault: Here is a quote pointing out the need for the emergency order is clear, and we are just enforcing existing law; the Governor General cancelling a visit around Quebec City (Boissonnault: The Governor General couldn’t learn French when she was younger because of discrimination but she is continuing to study French), more slogans about an election (Sudds: What’s up is affordable child care; Gould: Just yesterday, the House voted non-confidence in the leader of the opposition; Duclos: Your leader only built six affordable housing units as minister—which is not exactly true), some angry word salad about extortion crimes (O’Connell: You have voted against every measure to fight crime), the Asian Infrastructure Bank (Bendayan: The minister took immediate action when the allegations were raised, and the review in ongoing), preparations ahead of the Jasper wildfire (Guilbeault: You have taken emails out of context and now employees are receiving death threats), Canadians’ family members in Gaza (Miller: We are working to get Canadians out), and a Toronto school field trip (Hajdu: That is a question for the Ontario government but let me take an minute to praise our investments in Indigenous education).

Overall, it was a calmer day after yesterday’s utter inanity, at least until QP was over. Fergus’ removal of the three questions off the top did very little, because Poilievre took three more questions in the second round, thus essentially negating any consequence, at the expense of one of his caucus who would have had those clips instead. The NDP pointed this out after QP, and it descended into an all-out brawl over points of order, the comments from Garnett Genuis yesterday that were called out as casual homophobia, and when Genuis spoke about them, he gave a soliloquy about the New York residence, prevaricated about his remarks, and then cried it that it “wasn’t about sex!” Because homophobic insinuations are only ever about sex? But that led into further NDP condemnation, and eventual shouts about their loss of confidence in Fergus as he tried to move on rather than carry on with the recriminations, as they all yelled at him on their way out of the Chamber. The House of Commons started off with stupid season, and it has just carried on.

Otherwise, the day was mostly full of inane clip-gathering about the confidence motion, demands in exchange for future support, and the usual litany of slogans and utter lack of concern about the difference between provincial and federal jurisdiction. There were only a couple of questions that were genuine issues today, and that was about it. It’s just so gods damned exhausting and it shouldn’t be.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Laila Goodridge for a fuchsia dress with a dark blue jacket, and to Eric Melillo for a tailored black suit with a crisp white shirt and a dark purple tie. Style citations go out to Martin Shields for a chocolate brown jacket, olive green slacks, black and grey plaid shirt and a bright yellow tie, and to Helena Jaczek for a black dress with giant florals under a dark pink jacket. Dishonourable mention goes out to Gudie Hutchings for her black short-sleeved shirt-dress with large mustard yellow florals.

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