QP: Blaming Trudeau for a “woke riot”

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While the PM was off to Montreal to address the NATO parliamentary association meeting (which I remind you is not a NATO leaders’ summit), his deputy was present in his stead. Unusually, all of the other leaders were present on a Monday with no PM present, and Pierre Poilievre was present and led off in French, and he blamed Trudeau for the riot in Montreal, listed off a metric tonne of absolute bullshit, and demanded an election. Bill Blair said that what was on display was criminality, and that everyone must condemn it in no uncertain terms. Poilievre repeated the same bullshit in English, and this time Blair denounced the attempt to score partisan points off of what happened. Poilievre returned to French to take a swipe at the Bloc for supporting the government and demanded an election, and Chrystia Freeland said that every member has an opportunity to help Canadians with their measures, and wondered if the Conservatives would be free to vote into help people. Poilievre returned to English again to decry the “tax trick” of the GST “holiday,” and Freeland noted that in Canada, inflation, interest rates, deficits and the public debt are lower than the U.S., and repeated the question as to whether Conservatives would be free to vote for the tax holiday. Poilievre then denounced the notion of a “vibe-cession,” and Freeland suggested that Poilievre needs to be a little more economically literate, noted the upward GDP revisions, and the increase in per capita GDP.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, to decry that the cheques would go to high-income earners but not seniors, and Freeland said that they take the concerns of seniors seriously, and noted that they have supported seniors more than any government in the past, and that the federal expenditure on seniors is $48 billion. Blanchet decried the “discrimination” of this measure, and Freeland noted that seniors who are still working will get the cheque.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP to also decry that seniors won’t get that cheque, calling them the “most vulnerable” (the vast majority of seniors are not). Freeland reiterated that that how is the time to help people who have been through tough times with extra support. Singh switched to French, he repeated his condemnation of the exclusion of seniors, and added in students for good measure, and Freeland said that she hoped that the NDP would help them help Canadians.

Round two, and Poilievre got back up to take swipes at Singh and the NDP (Freeland: The only flip-flopped is the leader of the opposition, and he makes his caucus repeat Dr. Seuss rhymes robotically), Melissa Lantsman accused Trudeau of fomenting the Montreal riot (LeBlanc: This was criminality, and people will face consequences), Pierre Paul-Hus gave the same in French (LeBlanc: Same again in French), and Jamil Jivani denounced “woke ideology” (Virani: Will you support our bill to make penalties for antisemitism tougher; I reject your statement out of hand, and we need to stop people from being radicalised online).

Lantsman says that Trudeau “fomented” the riot in Montreal. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-11-25T19:37:35.444Z

Jivani denounces “woke ideology” and I can’t even. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-11-25T19:40:14.902Z

Blanchet got back up to again decry the cheques and wondered if they don’t have the support of the NDP (Freeland: I hope everyone will support these measures), and wondered why they didn’t lower the cap for the cheques to give more to seniors (Freeland: We do agree we need to support seniors, so we added a considerable amount of money to their supports), and Andréanne Larouche gave the same condemnation in her own clip (Duclos: No government has done more than seniors than us, and you didn’t support our bill to return the OAS to 65).

Stephen Ellis tried to assert this government is a kakistocracy and demanded an election (Holland: It’s a shame you would talk like this, while we have higher life expectancy while you cut our health systems), and Laila Goodridge decried the increase in child poverty and blamed the carbon levy (Freeland: Join us in supporting Canadians).

Bonita Zarrillo also decried seniors being excluded from the cheques (Sheehan: We have done more for seniors than any other government), and Leah Gazan blamed the federal government for provinces not increasing wages for child care workers (Sudds: Hooray for our system, but more work needs to be done, and I am meeting with provincial counterparts this week).

Round three saw questions on GDP per capita (Freeland: GDP has been revised upward; Fraser: A working-class Canadian voting for these guys is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders; You get rewarded in caucus for repeating slogans, not for standing up for your communities), expanding the civil service but being terrible at supporting Canadians, and meddling in provincial affairs (Beech: Let’s talk about the vast improvement in services over the past year; Duclos: Hooray dental care, which you voted against; It’s sad that my Conservative colleagues are being muzzled by their leader; Your leader only built six affordable housing units when he was “minister”—not really true; There is a housing project building 100 units in your riding), police injuries (LeBlanc: We are supporting police doing dangerous work; Virani: Your province is starting to do the work with administration of justice, but that is not the same across all provinces), CTA monitoring online forums about passenger experiences (Badawey: We are strengthening air passenger protections), and people with disabilities not getting the cheques (Khera: No government has done more to support people with disabilities).

Jasraj Hallan struggles to cram so many slogans into his questions he is utterly incoherent. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-11-25T19:54:25.651Z

Bail is always the default. That’s the constitution and the presumption of innocence.FFS. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-11-25T20:09:38.815Z

Overall, it was an entirely eye-rolling day (plus a few muttered profanities) around the bizarre assertion that Justin Trudeau is somehow personally responsible for that riot in Montreal, and that this is somehow about “woke ideology” and “DEI,” and I can barely even deal. It’s absolutely comical the way they trot out these lines as though they know what those words actually mean, but they don’t, because it’s very much the whole “everything I don’t like is woke” nonsense, which just makes this whole exercise even more of a joke than it already is, when it should, in fact, be about something more substantial. 

Meanwhile, the Bloc and the NDP were both railing that those proposed $250 cheques don’t go to seniors, students, and people with disabilities who can’t work, and the government’s response was to constantly pat themselves on the back for the claim that no government has done more for any of these groups than they have. I have yet to hear a single rationale for this policy choice, but Freeland, Khera and others kept repeating these lines as though that was the rationale (and for the disability community especially, this is just one more reminder about how the government broke their promise around the Disability Benefit). Again, with this government and their refusal to explain anything, because they have taken the notion of “if you’re explaining, you’re losing” to heart, so they never explain anything. It’s utterly ridiculous that this is still their default mode. 

I''m worried today's QP may cause @journodale.bsky.social to have a stroke.

— Bryan Based International Order (@bryanpeeler.bsky.social) 2024-11-25T19:43:15.301Z

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-11-25T19:47:29.145Z

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Julie Vignola for a cream-coloured long jacket over a black top and slacks, and to Mike Lake for a tailored dark grey three-piece suit with a white shirt with a dark grey tie. Style citations go out to Paul Chiang for a grey jacket with a checkerboard pattern over a black shirt with a light blue tie, and to Kamal Khera for a sleeveless grey long jacket over a black turtleneck and slacks.