Following all of the speculation and accusation about the dinner at Mar-a-Lago, the prime minister was finally present today, along with his deputy, as were most of the other leaders. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and he said that regardless if you take the Trump’s threats seriously or believe them to be a negotiation tactic, he claimed Trudeau has “lost control” of everything and demanded an election. Justin Trudeau said that they had a good discussion that talked about the good work they can do together, and added a jab about voting against the tax “holiday.” Poilievre claimed that Trudeau’s “destructive” policies were a gift to Trump, and Trudeau again chided Poilievre from voting against the GST “holiday,” as well as programmes like dental care or school food. Poilievre switched to English to repeat his first question, and this time, Trudeau cautioned about taking too seriously the erroneous talking points the Americans have weaponised, and that it wasn’t responsible leadership. Poilievre said that his job was not to cover for Trudeau “breaking” things, and listed a bunch of non sequiturs, and Trudeau said that they were stepping up for Canadians, and again listed the things the Conservatives voted against. Poilievre dismissed the programmes, and railed about the carbon levy. Trudeau recited that the carbon rebates puts more money back in the pockets of eight out of ten Canadians.
Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and he demanded a budgeted, detailed plan about the border. Trudeau said that they shared their immigration plan several weeks ago, and that they would continue to reduce the number of irregular migrants thanks to significant investments in staffing levels at the border. Blanchet said that they need a plan for the future, not the past, and listed other files he is concerned about, and wanted a Quebec representative in any future negotiations. Trudeau assured him that they did talk about trade, steel and aluminium, as well as softwood lumber on Friday, and that they will stand up for jobs.
Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, raised that Conservatives fired thousands of CBSA officers when they were in power, and wanted them all rehired, more hires on top of that, and their mandate expanded. Trudeau said that he agrees that the Conservatives only know how to cut, and listed other programmes they want to cut as well. Singh repeated the same in French, and closed with accusing Trudeau of coming back from the meeting empty-handed. Trudeau repeated that they have reinvested in the border, and have reduced the number of irregular arrivals.
#QP.
Applies to all sides. https://t.co/fUrJbxWbt8— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) December 3, 2024
Round two, and Eric Duncan read a script about “border disorder” and wanted CBSA’s mandate expanded (LeBlanc: We have added resources and have a lot of confidence in the work being done; The only plan you have is to think up silly new rhymes), Tom Kmiec read another script of the same (Miller: Do you trust the guy who renegotiated NAFTA, or the guy who spent the guy who spent twenty years thinking up silly rhymes and securing his own bloated pension; We proposed a set of asylum reforms in May, and you voted against it), and Pierre Paul-Hus read the script in French (Miller: Same answer; LeBlanc: Instead of repeating slogans from your leader’s office, we are supporting border officers and police).
Leblanc: The only plan the Conservatives have is to think up silly new slogans for Question Period. #QP
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-12-03T19:35:34.085Z
Rhéal Fortin worried about possible layoffs at a electric bus company (Champagne: We all care about workers, and we know this is a flagship company in Quebec, and we have been working closely with them), Martin Chapoux demanded the religious exemption for hate speech to be abolished (Duclos: We all have the right be responsibility to promote solitary and strength in our diversity; Virani: I agree with the proposal, given that there is a serious situation, so if you want to move forward on this bill, we you to help end the filibuster).
Adam Chambers listed some non sequitur economic stats (Freeland: You have an inferiority complex vis-à-vis the United States, but we have lower inflation, lower debt, a lower deficit, and live longer because of healthcare), and asked about the size of last year’s deficit (Freeland: If you want to support Canadians, support our GST “holiday”), and Jacques Gourde blamed the government for food price inflation (Freeland: You’re not looking at the economic data because inflation has been in the target range for ten months and the benchmark rate has come down; Your question is incoherent when it comes to the economy).
Leah Gazan asked about a recent coroner’s report about additional deaths at Ontario residential schools and demanded support for her bill on denialism (Battiste: We focus on support and healing), and Don Davies who worried about your unemployment, and wanted a “youth climate corps” to combat it (Ien: We support young people in so many ways).
A backbench suck-up question asking the minister to explain Conservative intransigence is deemed not to be a question on the administrative responsibilities of government, and is out of order. These stupid clip-harvesting exercises are a menace. #QP
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-12-03T19:57:16.556Z
Round three saw questions on the Auditor General’s report on CEBA (Valdez: Your leader hasn’t supported small businesses, and hooray for our GST “holiday”; Your leader needs his security clearance; We did exactly what we needed to do to help small businesses; MacKinnon: How dare you ask about seniors when Stephen Harper went to Davos to raise the retirement age), the AG report on seniors programmes (MacKinnon: You voted against help for seniors), the deal with the NDP (Gould: We have you an opportunity to debate this but you ran away, afraid; Your leader has a $2 million pension, and you’re accusing others of what you’re doing; MacKinnon: You urged us to come to the aid of farmers with the rail dispute while sitting on the sidelines), a sexual predator in a correctional facility with a mother-child programme (LeBlanc: The safety of children in this programme is a top priority, it has existed since before Harper was in power, and there are screening criteria in place), support for seniors (MacKinnon: You have supported our successful programmes to help seniors), veterans needing to prove their need for support annually (Petitpas Taylor: We re-invested in veterans and in improving processes).
The Speaker refused to recognise Anna Roberta while she was wearing a winter hat in the Chamber. #QP
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-12-03T20:00:47.635Z
Overall, the day started out reasonably normally, but spiralled down into complete ridiculousness by the end, on the issue around what kinds of questions are allowed as they relate to the administrative responsibilities of the government. The first was a Liberal backbench suck-up question that asked Chrystia Freeland to talk about why the Conservatives don’t want to support their GST “holiday” plan, which is not the administrative responsibility of government, so Speaker Fergus ruled it out of order, and the Liberals were pissed. And later in the third round, the Conservatives kept throwing shots at Jagmeet Singh, and trying to phrase it as asking the government if they have a new agreement with the NDP. The Speaker warned them that those weren’t really questions of the government, but Karina Gould got up to answer anyway (which she should not have), and spent most of her responses grousing that the Speaker was unfair to them. And this devolved into a whole thing after QP during points of order, to the point where Mark Gerretsen started challenging Fergus’ authority, but then undermined his own argument by complaining that the questions for backbenchers were mean to hold the government to account—but none of their backbench suck-up questions ever do that, and asking a minister to badmouth the Conservatives is absolutely not about holding government to account. I’m not sure why he thought that was supporting his argument but here we are. For the record, these backbench questions have bene so abused, and the Liberals have been as bad if not worse than the Conservatives were with them obsequious about these, and nobody looks good.
Gerretsen is very close to challenging the authority of the chair. We are now in a fight about questions that are out of order because they have nothing to do with the responsibility of government. #HoC
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-12-03T20:26:22.801Z
MacKinnon referred to someone as a “slimeball” for a ghoulish question. Brock complained. MacKinnon criticised the question and said he would withdraw the insult if the “snowflakes” on the other side are so bothered, then had to withdraw the snowflake remark. #HoC
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-12-03T20:29:57.937Z
Fergus has again lost all control. This is ridiculous. #HoC
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-12-03T20:31:12.087Z
My only other particular observation was that Freeland doesn’t seem to have updated her talking points and kept treating the GST “holiday” as it it hasn’t passed yet, when it’s already through the House of Commons. Trying to shame them into supporting a measure that they have already voted against, past tense, seems not only like she’s not on the ball, but it’s just more of the same embarrassing moves by the Liberals to defend this terrible policy.
Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Ryan Turnbull for a dark blue suit with a light blue shirt and a lavender tie and pocket square, and to Julie Dzerowicz for a black suit over a v-necked lavender top. Style citations go out to Patty Hajdu for a faded black smock top with an orange butterfly pattern across it over black tights, as well as to Alain Therrien for a light blue jacket with a windowpane pattern over a white shirt, black tie, and light grey slacks. Dishonourable mention goes out to Jagmeet Singh for a black suit with a white shirt, black tie, and mustard yellow turban.