QP: A victory lap for immigration concern trolling

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The PM was absent today, his deputy off in Washington, and all of the other leaders absent as well—even Pierre Poilievre, who was in Toronto for the day. That left Andrew Scheer to lead off, and he rhymed off slogans, claimed the Liberal caucus is “revolting,” and gave a declinist vision before debanding an election. Sean Fraser said that while Canadians have had a tough time because of global inflation, they are right to ask who is fighting for them, which isn’t the Conservatives, who want to cut supports they need. Scheer rhymed off more slogans, concern trolled some more about Liberal backbenchers rebelling, and again demanded an election. Marci Ien wondered if her own ministry would even exist in a Conservative government because they plan to cut supports for women, and said the Conservatives don’t stand for women or gender-diverse people. Scheer listed things they would cut, such as the CBC, and again claimed that Liberal backbenchers were confiding in Conservatives because they can’t get a hearing from Trudeau and claimed Marc Miller called these rebels “garbage” (which is not what he said), and he yet again called for an election. Patty Hajdu got up this time to decry just what the Conservatives would cut if they ever returned to power, including to First Nations for clean water. Luc Berthold took over in French to claim that Trudeau was all smiles when he left caucus yesterday because he knew he could count on the support of the Bloc, and listed a number of falsehoods before demanding an election. Diane Lebouthillier stood up to denounce cuts the Conservatives made when they were in office. Berthold continued unabated, and again demanded an election, to which Jean-Yves Duclos cited the falsehood that Poilievre only built six affordable housing units when he was “housing minister.”

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, did a little round of self-righteous told-you-so about immigration capacity, and wondered why they didn’t listen to Quebec earlier. Miller said that the targets were still close to those around 2020, and that immigration was still valuable. Therrien tried again, and this time Miller thanked him for his contributions to Canadian unity.

Heather McPherson rose for the NDP, and lambasted the government for not ensuring enough abortion access across the province (because apparently provincial governments don’t exist). Marci Ien recited the funding the federal government delivered to help increase access. Lindsay Mathyssen gave more of the same, and Mark Holland pointed to agreements they are signing with provincial governments. 

Round two, and Tom Kmiec stood up to read some utter nonsense about the Liberals “breaking” the immigration system and that they are too busy with infighting (Miller: Your leader is so late to the game on this that he hasn’t even come up with a slogan yet; It’s garbage for him to say this on behalf of the circus clown he supports as leader—and was then forced to withdraw it by the Speaker), Arpan Khanna haltingly read more talking points on immigration (Miller: Your leader still hasn’t come up with a slogan yet; If you think security certificates from the Modi government are reliable, you need a briefing along with your leader), and Dominique Vien also demanded an election over immigration (Miller: Hey, we achieved six percent francophone immigration; Your party has no plan where ours is reasonable).

Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe also took credit for the plan to reduce immigration but insisted it was still too high (Miller: The Quebec government has an agreement with us and we are waiting to hear their numbers), unfair distribution of asylum seekers (Miller: It is a problem that Quebec is forced to accept more asylum seekers but the numbers are going down), and worried that a second Trump presidency could cause another flood of asylum seekers (Miller: That wasn’t a question, just a statement).

Melisssa Lantsman took shots at Sean Fraser for his record as immigration minister (Fraser: You’re so focused on our caucus unity when you’re sitting a few seats down from someone you denounced for casting aspersions on the LGBT community; I spend no time or energy thinking about the insults you hurl at me), and Dan Albas tried more of the same (Fraser: Do your immigration talking points count for the fact we have resettled Ukrainians, and you keep letting slip your lack of support for Ukraine).

Bonita Zarrillo worried about family doctors—which is provincial responsibility (Holland: We have been discussing this at the national health ministers’ meeting, and have been working on agreements), and Laurel Collins took shots at Poilievre’s climate record and then saying the Liberals were no better (Guilbeault: I can assure you no oil lobbyists have organized fundraisers for me, and your own MPs used to praise carbon pricing but I guess you’re no longer environmentalists).

Round three saw more questions on gun crime (LeBlanc: Unlike you, we are taking assault-style rifles off the street; We reinvested in CBSA after your government cut their funding; Virani: I don’t appreciate your hypocrisy; Taking guns out of homes helps save the lives of women), that school in Quebec with religious instruction (Duclos: Your characterisation of the prime minister’s remarks is disgraceful and this is a provincial issue), the so-called “gang war” in BC (LeBlanc: We renewed guns and gangs funding to give police the resources they need), a litany of tough-on-crime nonsense (Virani: If you think we are going to apologise for taking assault-style rifles off the streets, you’re not going to get it), GC Strategies contracts (Duclos: The Auditor General and RCMP are independent and doing their own work; What we just heard was an insult to all Francophone members), de-staffing two lighthouses (Lebouthillier: After a technical assessment by the Coast Guard, these lighthouses were determined to no longer be safe for staff), and and refugee claimant removals—and was forced to withdraw some of his language (LeBlanc: The IRGC is a listed terrorist entity). 

Overall, it was a day where the Conservatives and Bloc were taking victory laps on the immigration level climbdown, and while Marc Miller and Sean Fraser were on fire when it came to the clawbacks, they certainly could have been a lot more substantive when it came to talking about the post-lockdown situation and the culpability of provinces in not building housing or healthcare capacity that these immigrants are being blamed for. And frankly, Miller would have been one of the best-placed ministers to do that precisely because he is frank and plain-spoken, and could have done away with the usual toxic-positivity pabulum that this government so frequently resorts to…but he didn’t, instead going on about how Poilievre was so late to this game that he didn’t even have a slogan ready (when in fact Poilievre has been dog-whistling to the far-right on immigration for a while now and hasn’t been called out by the government for it). This could have been handled so much better than it was, as much fun as Miller’s snappy retorts can be.

Otherwise, the flare-up at the end with Larry Brock complaining that the response to his question wasn’t in English was yet another stupid move by the Conservatives who keep falling into this trap that is going to make them the subject of moral outrage. And while this was bad enough, his bullshit prevarication that he said so because he couldn’t hear the translation through all of the “commotion”—which was coming from his side of the Chamber—was yet another example of digging in and rationalizing rather than apologizing and admitting he should’t have said what he did. But they can’t actually do that, so they need to make things worse for themselves, while the Speaker remained pretty useless on the matter (but what else is new?)

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Raquel Dancho for a tailored navy jacket over a black top and slacks, and to and to Eric Duncan for a navy suit with a white shirt and a purple tie. Style citations go out to Matthew Green for a dark tan-brown jacket over a light blue shirt, dark blue patterned tie, and black slacks, and to Marci Ien for a burgundy smock dress with a diamond pattern across it. Dishonourable mention goes out to Anna Roberts for a dark yellow jacket over a black top and slacks, and to Brenda Shanahan for a dark yellow turtleneck under a black jacket with black slacks. 

One thought on “QP: A victory lap for immigration concern trolling”

  1. YES THE IMMIGRATION LEVEL MUST COME DOWN. It is the provinces who absorb the influx, Toronto in particular. We should return to the level of 1990 which were more reasonable at 216,000.

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