The prime minister was present and ready to take all questions, as is his usual wont on Wednesdays, and nearly all of the other leaders were also there. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and worried about the threat of tariffs from the US, but insisted that our economy, the borders, and the PM himself was weak, and demanded an election so that a “strong leader” could put Canada First™. Just Trudeau said it was ironic because they had given the Conservatives a chance to put Canadians first, but they kept voting against initiatives to help people, such as dental care and the school food programme. Poilievre repeated the mocking falsehood that Trudeau’s only plan was a Zoom call with premiers, Trudeau insisted that while the other guy was putting on a little show, he and his party were there for Canadians, and added that the Conservatives are only sowing chaos and discord. Poilievre switched to English, and once again listed things he considered the government to have “weakened,” and wanted an election so there was someone with the “brains and backbone” to defend the country, to peals of laugher from the Liberal benches. Trudeau said that while Poilievre is concerned only about himself and Trudeau, they were focused on Canadians. Poilievre said that was an example was a sign that Trudeau has lost control, and demanded an election. Trudeau mocked that Poilievre was up all night practicing that line in the mirror, and listed ways that the government was there for Canadians. Poilievre insisted that was a “mass hallucination” and that those programmes don’t exist outside of his head, and again demanded an election. Trudeau said this was an example of Poilievre trying to gaslight Canadians, and used dental care as an example of a programme that is working.
Poilievre says that only he has the “brains and backbone” to defend the country.The Liberal benches erupted in peals of laughter. #QP
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-11-27T19:33:11.389Z
Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and said that nobody wants Trudeau’s vote-buying Christmas gift, to which Trudeau praised the GST holiday as helping those struggling. Blanchet said that those who need the cheques most won’t get it, and demanded a confidence vote. Trudeau said it was up to the opposition parties to vote to help people rather than engage in petty partisan games.
Alexandre Boulerice rose for the NDP to raise the story of a woman on disability who can’t work, but her spouse is a high-income earner and he will get the cheque and not her (which doesn’t seem like a great anecdote). Trudeau mocked that he remembered a time when the NDP stood up for workers, but now they are not supporting this rebate for workers, and said that they wanted the rebate to acknowledge the hard work of workers. Alistair MacGregor took over in English to also denounce that seniors were not getting the cheque, and Trudeau repeated his same mocking in English.
No, that spike of inflation was not the worst we had ever seen. It was much higher and more persistent in the seventies and eighties. #QP
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-11-27T19:39:49.718Z
Round two, and Poilievre took a swipe at the NDP before demanding an election (Trudeau: MPs are supposed to represent their constituencies in Ottawa, but Conservatives have to represent their leader in their constituencies, and they need to stand up to their leader), framing an election as a rebate on tax cuts (Trudeau: Cutting the carbon levy would eliminate the rebates people rely on), derided the housing funds (Trudeau: Mayors from Conservative ridings keep telling us how much they rely on these funds), Poilievre mocked that politicians like getting money rather than cutting taxes on people who buy the houses (Trudeau: You would rather pick fights with everyone rather than work together to get things built), Poilievre accused Trudeau of being unable to stay on a single subject, but then changed it again to the carbon levy (Trudeau: I only ever talk about helping Canadians, which you don’t do), and then said that people need a leader who is “in control of himself” and demanded an election (Trudeau: You want to talk about food banks, then let’s talk about the school food programme that you forced your MPs to vote against).
Blanchet returned to his feet to say that they could use the money from those cheques to enrich pensions or build housing (Trudeau: People are struggling so we are supporting them, and we are giving direct support to workers), and demanded a confidence vote on the measures (Trudeau: You have Opposition Days where you can propose such a motion).
Poilievre got back up, and in French, demanded a plan to deal with Trump and worried about expiring visas in Canada (Trudeau: Every year, thousands of visas expire and people return home when they do), Poilievre insisted that they don’t track those numbers (Trudeau: We just put forward an immigration plan to reduce numbers to allow housing to catch up, while our borders are strong), repeated the same concern about not tracking numbers in English (Trudeau: Every year, the vast majority of people return home when their visas expire, and there are mechanisms and consequences if they don’t), and Poilievre denounced that as a weak answer (Trudeau: You are talking down Canada and Canadians).
Lisa Marie Barron railed about electoral reform (Trudeau: I would bring in a ranked ballot tomorrow If I could, but why is the NDP is asking about this rather than people having a difficult time?), and Blake Desjarlais thundered about minimum wage and the rebate cheques (Trudeau: Canadians with disabilities will get payments every month starting next year, and the NDP are turning their backs on workers again).
Mark Gerretsen reads a script about Conservative MPs being muzzled. The Speaker shut it down as it was not about the responsibility of government. #QP
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-11-27T20:00:56.790Z
Round three saw yet more questions from Poilievre on the GST holiday (Trudeau: You muzzle your MPs), outright lying about the “liberalisation of hard drugs” (Trudeau: You use struggling people as props to spread fear and misinformation; An evidenced-based and compassionate approach will save lives), claiming the economy is “broken” (Trudeau: You want to cut help to people), the deficit (Trudeau: We will present our economic statement shortly; We will deliver assistance for Canadians that the Conservatives will vote against so he can claim Canada is broken; I won’t take lessons from someone who stays up to practice his little performances in the mirror, and we had the third largest foreign investment in the world last year; We are focused on delivering for Canadians). There were also questions about a surge of asylum claims at the border (Trudeau: We renegotiated the Safe Third Country Agreement; You were so proud of your written question that you didn’t listen to my answer), women’s shelters (Trudeau: No one should have to return to a violent or at-risk situation, which is why we are funding provinces and municipalities to support anyone fleeing domestic violence), and our borders being unsecured (Trudeau: Why don’t you turn your friend the Conservative leader why he won’t get his security clearance?).
He says, two thirds of the way through #QP. https://t.co/bFusNgyN1g
— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) November 27, 2024
Dear Justin Trudeau,Stop trying to make “brokenist” happen. It’s not going to happen. #QP
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-11-27T20:05:17.834Z
Trudeau walked into Poilievre’s little rhetorical trap, and it would have been so easy to shut it down but he instead makes himself look even worse. #QP
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-11-27T20:18:51.784Z
Overall, there were a couple of interesting things happening today. One was that Poilievre kept insisting that Trudeau was unhinged when he gave perfectly rational answers, and called some of the recent social programmes a “mass hallucination that only exists in his mind,” because he is actively trying to build an alternate reality for his followers to believe in as a test of their loyalty to him This is a Trump tactic. Trudeau did respond that this was gaslighting, and for once it’s an appropriate use of the term, because Poilievre’s use of “mass hallucination” and not being in control of himself, which implies that he is trying to convince Trudeau (and others) that he is mentally ill or unstable. This is what separates gaslighting from garden-variety lying.
Two other things—the first was that Trudeau finally articulated a reason for those cheques going out only to workers, which was pretty much a week too late and a thin policy reason about rewarding workers for keeping Canada going through the pandemic and the inflation spike. It also gave him an opportunity to needle the NDP about not being on there for workers anymore, but still, this feels like an ableist policy that was not as well thought-through as it should have been, and the fact that it took a week to articulate why this is intended for workers only is a problem for the government. The second thing was that Trudeau walked right into Poilievre’s rhetorical trap when he refused to discuss just what last year’s deficit number was. Trudeau could have easily shut down the line of questions by saying the number, providing some context about how small it is in the overall size of the economy, and actually looked like he knew what he was talking about. Nevertheless, the insistence on just talking around it just served to make Trudeau look aloof and indifferent, which I can’t imagine why he thinks this is the better way to go.
There are now accusations that Sorbara gave the finger to the Conservatives. Everyone is behaving like children. #HoC
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-11-27T20:26:16.441Z
Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Karina Gould for a dark grey suit with a white top, and to Justin Trudeau for a tailored navy suit with a white shirt and a dark purple tie. Style citations go out to Colin Carrie for a dark grey checkerboard jacket over a white shirt with a multicoloured striped tie and black slacks, and to Sonia Sidhu for a long light grey sleeveless jacket over a bright red turtleneck and khaki slacks.