While the prime minister was still in Rio for the G20 summit, his deputy was present, but most other leaders didn’t bother. Pierre Poilievre was present, however, and he led off in French by equating the prime minister to a firefighter setting fires, who blamed “bad actors” for the immigration problems, and that he needed to look in the mirror. Marc Miller spoke about the decision to lower targets as being the responsible thing to do. Poilievre repeated this in English, and Miller said they wouldn’t take any lessons from someone who has spent twenty years lighting fires in the House of Commons. Poilievre switched to the various allegations about Randy Boissonnault and demanded his resignation. Boissonnault said that despite the innuendo, he had not met and has no dealings with the person referred to in the article today. Poilievre tried again, with a couple of added swipes, and Boissonnault repeated that the same denial, and the article stated that fact. Poilievre then took a swipe at Trudeau saying people are confused by misinformation about the carbon levy, repeated lies about it, and demanded an election. Jonathan Wilkinson called out the disinformation and chanted that eight out of ten households get more money back. 

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and he decried the amendments to their Supply Management bill in the Senate, and demanded the prime minister order senators to defeat the amendment. Karina Gould reminded him that senators are independent. Therrien railed about that independence and didn’t believe it, and repeated his demand. This time Marie-Claude Bibeau suggested that the Conservatives tell their own senators to pass the bill. 

Alexandre Boulerice rose for the NDP, complained about prices “not making sense” and more, and demanded the government adopt their economically stupid plan to cut the GST on certain items. Jean-Yves Duclos responded with a swipe about the Conservatives not supporting dental care. Don Davies repeated the same demand in English, and François-Philipppe Champagne repeated that the Conservatives will cut, and patted himself on the back for creating economic opportunities. 

Round two, and Melissa Lantsman got up to take more swipes at Boissonnault (Boissonnault: I don’t know the person in question), Michael Barrett tried again and got warned about his language by the Speaker (Boissonnault: That isn’t true), and Luc Berthold gave the same in French (Boissonnault: I have never met that person; Your statements are false).

Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe railed about the former immigration targets (Miller: We don’t control absolutely everything, and the government if Quebec has their own responsibilities; Quebec tripled certain immigration targets they control, and we are now making responsible reductions).

Garnett Genuis and Kelly McCauley returned to the Boissonnault allegations (Gould: This has been answered; Duclos: If you have questions about the procurement process for Indigenous businesses, I can give you a briefing).

Genuis seems to think he’s Holden Caulfield, calling out phonies. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-11-18T19:45:36.982Z

Leah Gazan and Taylor Bachrach demanded the government adopt the NDP’s terrible GST cut plan (Sudds: Hooray for the school food programme; Our investments in child care are important).

Round three saw yet more questions on the Boissonnault allegations (Duclos: What you said is false and your leader needs his security clearance; Gould: Those allegations are false and your leader needs a security clearance), disinformation about the carbon levy (van Koeverden: It is disingenuous to link the food bank situation to the carbon levy and food banks themselves do not make that connection; We are challenging the oil and gas sector to invest their profits into efficiency and lower emissions; Our emissions are lower now than in 1997, thanks to the carbon pricing; Holland: Our lifespans are longer than comparator countries and misinformation and attacking public health puts lives at risk; Wilkinson: 300 economists have agreed that carbon pricing is the best tool), the bogus tax refunds from CRA and the “witch hunt” for the whistleblower (Bibeau: If I were to share information under the Income Tax Act, I could be subject to seven years in jail; You are mixing up two separate issues), housing (Fraser: your leader should stop preventing you from advocating for your community), crime (Virani: Calls for bail reform need to go go the provinces, whose responsibility this is; LeBlanc: We have been investing in police in fighting auto theft), the Genocide Convention (Oliphant: The situation in Gaza is dire, and we will seek every possible way to find peace and justice in this situation, but rhetoric won’t help), and an issue with closed work permits (Boissonnault: I will work with you to solve this problem). 

Rosemarie Falk complains that Trudeau said that opponents use propaganda and misinformation to oppose the carbon levy, and then uses outright disinformation to make her point. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-11-18T20:05:34.862Z

Overall, it was a fairly tiresome day with the repeated character assassination of Boissonnault, and the Speaker needing to remind Conservatives over and over again that referring to someone as a “fraud” or a “fake/phoney” is not parliamentary, but I also noted that the Liberals did not invite the Conservatives to repeat those words outside of the Chamber, where they no longer have Parliamentary privilege, so take that for what it’s worth. The Liberals did eventually bring up the security clearance talking points by the third round, but fortunately it was only  couple of mentions and not in response to every question. The point of order fights after QP were completely tiresome, and I lost pretty much all patience by that point. These are supposed to be adults, and not whiney children, but this is the state of our parliament in 2024. Zeus help us.

After McPherson got into a fight with the Speaker over whether her watermelon pin constitutes a prop, Genuis tapes a “Fire Randy” sign to his lapel and stands up on his own point. I’m done. Send them home. #HoC

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-11-18T20:28:02.715Z

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Iqra Khalid for a fuchsia suit with a black top, and to Marc Miller for a tailored navy suit with a crisp white shirt and a dark purple tie. Style citations go out to Paul Chiang for a dark grey checkerboard patterned suit over a custard yellow shirt and black tie, and to Melissa Lantsman for a boxy light grey sweater-jacket with black trim. Dishonourable mention goes out to Ginette Petitpas Taylor for a dark yellow jacket over a black collared top and slacks.