The prime minister was present and ready to take all questions, while his deputy found better things to do. All of the other leaders were present today, and Pierre Poilievre led off in French, as is his usual wont, and claimed the PM was weak, lost control of the border, his spending, and his own party, and used Bonnie Crombie’s words as proof (even though it’s not the same party). Justin Trudeau said that his caucus was unified about the GST “holiday,” and claimed Conservatives wanted to vote for it and that Poilievre gagged them. Poilievre repeated the “lost control” slogan to apply it to food insecurity, and wanted assurances from the Economic Statement next week. Trudeau said it would come in due course, and that the government was helping people while Poilievre was jostling for his own political interests. Poilievre switched to English to repeat his first question while adding in the claim that Mélanie Joly launched her leadership campaign in the New York Times. Trudeau said that the Liberals are allowed to have different opinions while Poilievre just muzzles his MPs. Poilievre went on about the Joly story, and said Trudeau needs to get the hint that his party doesn’t want him any more. Trudeau gave a paean about Canadians pulling together when they face threats but Poilievre can’t help himself. Poilievre said that Trudeau was giving Canadian jobs to Trump, and listed “taxes” as proof, while Trudeau said that Canadians see through Poilievre’s shallow games, and that he wants them to struggle because he thinks it helps his prospects.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and demanded the federal government respect the unanimous motion in the Quebec National Assembly to get rid of the religious exemption for hate crimes, and Trudeau hit back that if they cared about it, they would do something about the Conservative filibuster so that said bill could come up for debate. Blanchet repeated the demand, and Trudeau again repeated his point about the Bloc not helping to end the filibuster.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and demanded permanent GST exemptions for “daily essentials,” and Trudeau patted himself on their GST “holiday.” Singh recited his new line about the Conservatives being “boot-lickers for billionaires” and the Speaker had to interject before Singh repeated his demand in French. Trudeau repeated his same self-congratulatory response.

Round two, and Poilievre chirped that Singh was a “Maserati Marxist” before demanding an election (Trudeau: You didn’t support the GST “holiday”), the size of the deficit (Trudeau: You stopped talking about inflation because we helped bring it down; We invested in measures to help Canadians without triggering inflation), fentanyl (Trudeau: Your answer to this tragedy is to stand for photo ops in front of encampments, and we have anchored ourselves in science, in partnerships with other municipalities, and working with the United States on precursor chemicals; He doesn’t care about Canadians, and is only there for a clip).

“Boot-licker for billionaires!”“Maserati Marxist!”#QP is sure getting those clips for social media today.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-12-04T19:44:15.805Z

Blanchet offered to “unblock” the House of Commons for 24 hours if they pass their bill on the religious exemption for hate speech (Trudeau: That’s great, but there are plenty of other things that also need to be debated; Some talking points about dental care and jurisdiction).

Poilievre railed about housing prices in Toronto and Vancouver (Trudeau: Your own MPs complained that you won’t let them stand up for their communities on housing), construction slowdowns after being given federal money (Trudeau: Mayors are speaking out about the reckless cuts he is proposing; Your only plan is to pick fights with journalists, mayors, and the Team Canada approach rather than solving problems).

Lindsay Mathyssen demanded action on food affordability (Trudeau: You won’t stand up for workers with our proposed rebate cheques), and Lori Idlout wanted more accountability for the First Nations and Inuit cultural support providers (Trudeau: The AFN chiefs are right now engaged in a review of the whole programme and we will work with them).

Round three saw more questions from Poilievre on labour rights (Trudeau: He’s been obstructing to make Parliament look like it can’t work so he can tell everyone that things are broken), First Nations launching a court challenge about the carbon levy (Trudeau: Indigenous people are the first to stand up for the environment; They know about the impacts of climate change and the under-investment in their infrastructure by Conservatives), voting non-confidence (Trudeau: He wants obstruction rather than seeing us solving problems and delivering for Canadians), the emissions cap sending jobs to the U.S. (Trudeau: We are putting a cap on emissions not production; They need to innovate and reduce their emissions), immigration numbers (Trudeau: After the pandemic, provinces and industry had a labour shortage so we brought in workers and our system is flexible so we are now reducing numbers because they’re not needed), the number of people in the country illegally (Trudeau: Canada has always had a generous but responsible system; You are importing right-wing rhetoric from south of the border). There were also questions about enriching OAS (Trudeau: The Bloc is just picking a fight while we help seniors who need it), the Bloc hate speech bill (Trudeau: We need to work together on this and other matters like our online harms bill), the soccer drone scandal (Trudeau: This was unfortunate and there have been consequences and there are follow-ups), passports held up by the postal strike (Trudeau: We are working with both parties to put an end to the strike).

Once QP was over, Olympic and Paralympic athletes filled the Chamber to be applauded for their efforts on behalf of Canada, and it was nice to see MPs behaving like human beings for a change. The handshakes were slow to start, but did eventually happen mostly with Trudeau, but increasingly with Poilievre as well, who even got a bro-hug from one of the athletes, before he and Melissa Lantsman started illicitly snapping photographs of Poilievre with athletes (which is against the rules and which the Speaker told them not to do before the athletes arrived).

Olympic and paralympics athletes are being presented to the House of Commons (and the Speaker is warning MPs not to take photos). #HoC

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-12-04T20:32:42.806Z

Overall, today wasn’t anything really new, as Poilievre kept up his “weak” talking points and slogans, and so on. He did reference the offer to let the fiscal update happen on Monday, but Trudeau didn’t seem to take him up on it, so we’ll see if that happens. There were also offers from the Bloc to temporarily lift the filibuster so long as it means passing one of their bills, but again, Trudeau wasn’t biting so long as it was for just that one private members’ bill, but wanted an end to the filibuster writ-large in order to let other measures go forward.

I would also note that while last week, Trudeau kept prevaricating around questions relating to the size of the deficit, and making himself look innumerate in the process, today it was about the number of people in the country illegally (which I’m not sure how exactly you would figure that out, considering that they don’t just self-declare to authorities that they are in the country illegally). Regardless, the most scorn that Trudeau poured on the question was to call out Poilievre for importing right-wing rhetoric from the U.S., but again, it was mostly just prevarication and feel-good pabulum rather than finding a better way of responding to these particular kinds of questions.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Carla Qualtrough for a tailored cranberry jacket over a lower-cut white top and black slacks, and to Peter Fragiskatos for a tailored navy three-piece suit over a crisp white shirt with a matching pocket square and a burgundy tie. Style citations go out to Yves-François Blanchet for a brown jacket over a light blue shirt, dark blue and red striped tie, multicoloured pocket square, and light grey slacks, and to Lindsay Mathyssen for a white top with wizard sleeves under a long dusky rose sleeveless jacket and light grey slacks.