The prime minister was in Toronto for the ill-considered GST “holiday” announcement along with his deputy, and most of the other leaders made themselves absent as well. Pierre Poilievre had just given a press conference but was not present, leaving it up to Frank Caputo to lead off instead, asking a ghoulish about sexual killers getting reduced security in prison, falsely blaming the former Bill C-83 (which was about solitary confinement reform). Dominic LeBlanc castigated the Conservatives for constantly repeating the names of heinous killers who are behind bars. Caputo then switched to denouncing the announced “affordability package” and demanded an election. Arif Virani declared that today was a great day for affordability and hoped the Conservatives wouldn’t be muzzled from voting for it. Caputo dismissed the measures and again demanded the carbon levy be cut instead. Virani gave a paean about how great the measures were for Xmas. Luc Berthold took over in French to say the best course was to cut the carbon levy, but the framing was odd because it doesn’t apply in Quebec, and François-Philippe Champagne praised the proposed measures. Berthold insisted the measures would raise inflation and demanded an election, and Champagne said that they don’t need an election, and the Conservatives need to support it.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and complained about the state of official languages and the decline of French. Ginette Petitpas Taylor, newly in the portfolio, said she looked forward to working with the Quebec government. Therrien quoted Quebec’s French Language Commissioner in saying that the federal government is “anglicising” Gatineau and Quebec, and Petitpas Taylor said she was offended by this as a New Brunswicker.

Alexandre Bourlerice rose for the NDP, and took credit for the government temporarily cutting the GST on certain items, and demanded this be made permanent. Champagne said that the NDP is just waking up and that the government has long understood the affordability needs and giving people a hand at Xmas. Don Davies made the same demand in English, and Anita Anand yelled that it was tax-free on essential goods for the holidays and how great this was, ending with a swipe at the Conservatives about “How can they claim to speak for Canadians when they can’t even speak for themselves?”

Me, sitting in the dumbest #QP in weeks. https://t.co/Jeix8ug4Jy

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) November 21, 2024

Round two, and Jasraj Hallan took swipes at Jagmeet Singh and the government to demand an election (Bendayan: We are giving a tax break to all Canadians), Philip Lawrence read his own script of the same (Gould: You talk about reducing poverty but now you want to oppose a tax cut while your leader muzzles you; You’re saying you don’t want to help Canadians, and are hypocrites), and Jacques Gourde read the French-language version of the script (Bendayan: Hooray for our tax cut, and are you allowed to vote in favour of it?; Sudds: A dad in my riding told me about how great this tax holiday will be).

Kristina Michaud worried about border crossing reducing hours (LeBlanc: We needed to harmonise hours with the Americans at certain secondary crossings; We need to support RCMP and border security as it’s a joint effort), and Claude DeBellefeuille asked the same again (LeBlanc: We are working with our American counterparts as we have always done).

John Barlow recited the same script about the NDP and demanding an election (Gould: We are delivering relief which you oppose, and while your leader delivered donuts to protesters outside the Hill, he had police remove protesters outside his home so he only likes some speech), and Barlow denounced that answer as politicians should be outside of anyone’s house (Gould: We agree, but you cheered on the convoy when they were harassing residents), and Stephen Ellis read the same script again (Gould: If you cared about affordability, you would support our measure).

Gould equated Poilievre having police remove protesters outside Stornoway with when he delivered donuts to the convoy, and the Conservatives went *berserk*.(But seriously, don’t protest outside of politicians’ homes). #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-11-21T19:50:06.665Z

Barlow demanded she apologise as no one should protest outside anyone’s home. Gould says she agrees, but the Conservatives cheered on the convoy while they harassed residents. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-11-21T19:53:19.459Z

Heather McPherson wanted support for the ICC arrest warrants for Netanyahu, his former defence minister, and the leader of Hamas (Damoff: We will abide by the rulings of the SCC, and all parties must abide by international law, and the violence must stop), and Brian Masse worried about the alleged collusion on potatoes products (Champagne: We are the government that reformed the Competition Act).

Round three saw questions on Randy Boissonnault’s former company (Gould: That company was not on the list, and you are attempt to distract from our good news; Hajdu: What is encouraging here is your support for Indigenous procurement, and we need to making sure that they benefit; You should work with your party to support our safe drinking water bill if you are so concerned about Indigenous people; Sousa: That company never got any contracts; Bendayan: That has been answered but what hasn’t been answered is how much your leader plans to cut), the CRA “witch-hunt” against whistleblowers (Khalid: There are some situations that we can’t talk about, and we have supported your bill on whistleblowers), overseeing the rebuilding of Jasper now that Boissonnault is out (Guilbeault: You should be ashamed of the previous government’s record when they invested nothing in fire protection in Jasper), blaming the prime minister for insurance conditions after a car theft—when insurance is provincial (LeBlanc: We have invested in cracking down on car thefts; Virani: We have seen a 48 percent decrease in thefts, but administration of bail is a provincial matter), gun violence (Virani: We are taking measures which your party has opposed), rent in Edmonton—which is provincial jurisdiction (Fragiskatos: All levels of government have a role to play and we are helping to increase supply), and re-establishing a centre for peace and justice (Blair: We have extended and expanded support for initiatives to peacekeeping). 

Dear Blake Desjarlais,Rent in Edmonton is a provincial responsibility, not federal. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-11-21T20:20:03.850Z

Barrett says Gould’s comments about the protest at Stornoway was “inciting violence.”Gould says she agrees that their homes shouldn’t be targets, and Conservatives shout “That’s not what you said!” #HoC

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-11-21T20:23:39.697Z

Overall, it might possibly have been the stupidest QP in weeks, as the Conservatives traded “axe the tax” slogans and disinformation about the economic situation, with the Liberals trying to be clever in crying “You’re suddenly against tax cuts” to defend their really, really bad policy of the GST “holiday,” and it just went on, and on, and on like that. Starting off with the ghoulish question about sex killers was bad enough, but the poor government responses to defend their poor policy decision (while the NDP kept yelling “Thanks to the NDP!”) was completely exasperating. The Liberals, still believing themselves to be clever, kept asking if the Conservative leader would unmuzzle his MPs to vote for this, just resulted in even more non sequiturs, right up to Karina Gould trying to equate the Greenpeace protesters arrested outside of Stornoway with the occupation in Ottawa Centre by the “Freedom convoy,” which felt like bad taste in spite of the point that she was trying to make. And we’ve got three more weeks of this utter inanity, which is going to be a slog to get through.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Laila Goodridge for a navy dress under a fuchsia jacket, and to Pierre Paul-Hus for a tailored dark grey suit with a white shirt and a light blue tie. Style citations go out to Damien Kurek for a black jacket over a white shirt, blue patterned tie and blue jeans, and to Jenny Kwan for a black dress with big pink florals. Dishonourable mentions go out to Marie-Hélène Gaudreau for a dark yellow jacket with black detailing over a black top and slacks, and to Luc Desilets for a black suit and bow tie with a bright yellow shirt.