Neither the PM nor his deputy were present today, nor were most of the other leaders. Pierre Poilievre was present, and led off in French, and he declared Justin Trudeau to be “weak,” blamed him for Roxham Road, the rise in foreign students and the claim that 500,000 people were “lost,” and demanded to know what he would do to secure the border. Jean-Yves Duclos noted that the relationship with the U.S. is the most important, and praised the changes to the Safe Third Country Agreement. Poilievre accused the government of losing control of the border and that premiers were sending more provincial police to the borders. Duclos took the opportunity to raise Poilievre not having his security clearance. Poilievre switched to English to repeat his first question, with slightly more faux menace, and this time, Marc Miller noted that hundreds of thousands of people come to this country and then leave, who are called tourists and that anyone who doesn’t leave will face consequences, before saying that Poilievre and Tim Uppal have been telling people they won’t be deported because he’ll give them all visas. Poilievre stumblingly called this a “hallucination,” and Miller said he would tweet out the video, before saying that Poilievre needs to “grow a pair” and get his security clearance. Poilievre called this “erratic behaviour” and demanded an election, to which Karina Gould called him all talk and no walk.

Marc Miller just said that Poilievre needs to “grow a pair” and get his security clearance. Speaker Fergus asks him to withdraw those words, and Miller obliges. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-11-28T19:50:40.348Z

https://twitter.com/MarcMillerVM/status/1862269731329262017

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and claimed the government was finally listening to the Bloc and  adding resource to the border (Duclos: The prime minster had a good call with the premiers), and on a follow-up, Mélanie Joly noted that she spoke with François Legault this morning, as well as a number of influential American senators.

Alexandre Boulerice rose for the NDP to demand that the “rebate” cheques be expanded to more people. Soraya Martinez Ferrada thanked the NDP for their support on the GST holiday, unlike the “grinches” on the other side. Laurel Collins took over in English to also demand the rebate be expanded, and this time, Ferrada praised in French their (wholly inadequate) disability benefit and took the jab at the NDP for not supporting workers.

Round two, and Melissa Lantsman cited the CFIB prediction that only four percent of businesses will benefit from the GST holiday (Fragiskatos: The Retail Council of Canada and Restaurants Canada feel differently, and you supported it when Erin O’Toole proposed it; Workers and families are on our minds with these measures), Jasraj Hallan raced through is angry word salad (Gould: We are excited to give this tax break to Canadians; This tax break makes a difference), and Dominique Vien claimed people hated this idea and demanded an election (Martinez Ferrada: It’s great that we are passing this tax holiday; Fraser: We signed a deal with Quebec to build offer 8,000 affordable housing units, and you want to cut them).

Andréanne Larouche demanded the rebate cheques go to seniors and improve OAS (Martinez Ferrada: This tax cut benefits seniors and I got a letter from someone saying the Bloc lost my vote because of this blackmail; Lauzon: You voted against all previous efforts to help seniors; You need to explain to seniors why you voted against them every other time).

Brad Vis said the tax “holiday” was hurting businesses and demanded an election (Valdez: The only thing you office small businesses are slogans and cuts, and businesses can call the CRA for further support), Ryan Williams demanded a softwood lumber deal (Sidhu: We stood up for our workers when you urged us to capitulate).

Lori Idlout raised child deaths because of Jordan’s Principle disputes (Housefather: We have funded at least 7.8 million supports and we are increasing funding to meet demand), and Taylor Bachrach raised a recent Air Canada failure with a person in a wheelchair (Badaway: We the accessibility seriously, and we demand the airlines address these issues).

Round three saw questions on removals of people whose visas expired (Miller: You don’t know what you’re talking about while your leader is on video pandering to people promising visas with no removals; O’Connell: When you were in power, you cut 1000 CBSA agents and we brought then back; Joly: We have to invest in our relationship with the Americans, and the border is very important), More support for seniors instead of the rebate cheques (Martinez Ferrada: You don’t understand people who live in a vulnerable way and we want to give them a tax break; Valdez: This is so great for small businesses), violent crime (O’Connell: You are using skewed data and we have invested in police; You talk a big game but cut RCMP and CBSA; Virani: We have invested in border measures and have seen a 42 percent decrease in vehicle theft in Quebec), the carbon levy (Guilbeault: Carbon pricing is generating investment, putting money in the pockets of Canadians and bringing emissions down; You are the party that let Jasper down and now you want to let all Canadians down; Wilkinson: You ran on a platform that including carbon pricing), the public service pension plan surplus (Housefather: We want to make sure we look into where this goes, and we are discussing with the unions), and expediting Bill C-63 (Virani: I would appeal to all parliamentarians shouldn’t be a partisan issue and it should get to committee). 

Overall, it was a much more low-key day in comparison, while we saw some of the same themes—Poilievre trying to make “weak” an attack on Trudeau, his dismissal of any counter-punching as “hallucination” or “erratic behaviour,” because he is constructing his alternate reality where people who don’t believe his falsehoods can be dismissed as mentally ill. As for the continued exchanges on the GST “holiday,” my patience for either side’s talking points is pretty much nil, and great Cyllenian Hermes, the Liberals have pretty much sacrificed their dignity on this one. For Peter Fragiskatos, who is normally a good performer, to try and score points by saying that the Conservatives supported this measure when it was proposed by Erin O’Toole but won’t now, ignored the fact that the Liberals dismissed it when O’Toole proposed it because it’s a very bad policy! Everything about this is so stupid, and I can’t even.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Rechie Valdez for a light grey woven jacket over a low-cut black too and black slacks, and to Maninder Sidhu for a tailored navy suit with a crisp white shirt and a pink and grey tie. Style citations go out to Ryan Williams for a dark blue jacket with a checkered pattern, a black waistcoat, white shirt, red tie, light blue pocket square and faded dark blue slacks, and to Mélanie Joly for an off-white belted dress with a black fern-leaf pattern and a long pussy bow. Dishonourable mention goes out to Anna Roberts for her hateful mustard jacket with tassels over a black v-necked top and slacks.