After a morning where the Conservatives were on the losing end of procedural warfare with their planned confidence vote debate, neither the PM nor his deputy were present today, nor were any of the other leaders. Jasraj Hallan led off, spouted nonsense about the deficit and inflation, and demanded to know the size of the deficit. Sean Fraser responded by praising the country’s growth projections, and that the Conservatives voted against measures to help people. Hallan listed things that were “broken,” and Fraser chided him for his alliteration before again pointing out the things the Conservatives have voted against. Hallan again demanded the deficit number, and this time Jenna Sudds rose to point out how many more children were in poverty when the Conservatives were in power before listing programmes the government rolled out. Luc Berthold took over in French, and demanded the Fall Economic Statement be delivered on Monday. Steven Guilbeault took this one and decried that the Conservatives voted against the GST “holiday.” Berthold then quoted the “Food Professor” on food prices and blamed the carbon price, and Guilbeault quoted said professor back again in saying that climate change is responsible for food prices.
Berthold just cited the Food Dude about food prices, and I can’t even. #QP
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-12-05T19:31:02.629Z
Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and railed about the Senate dragging out the vote on their Supply Management bill, to which Karina Gould reminded him that the government supported the bill, but the Conservatives were divided on it. Therrien railed some more about senators, and Gould again repeated her response.
Peter Julian rose for the NDP, and decried grocery giant greed in French. Guilbeault again praised the GST “holiday.” Alistair MacGregor decried the same in English, and Fraser praised their school food programme and the GST “holiday.”
Round two, and John Barlow got up to mislead about food insecurity and the carbon levy (Turnbull: The very report you cite says that climate change is the biggest driver of food price inflation; Guilbeault: The report doesn’t mention the carbon levy is a factor in food prices rising), Jake Stewart read another misleading script on the same (Sudds: You voted against the work we’re doing to provide relief to families, like the school food programme; Gould: Just because you make something up, it doesn’t make it true, and we have already cited that the report doesn’t say that), and Gérard Deltell again raised the stories of children asking Santa Claus for food and winter coats (MacKinnon: You just voted against a GST break on these things).
OK, enough. This is an outright lie, and I am not in the habit of calling people liars. The report he is referring to dos NOT mention the carbon tax as a factor behind the $800 increase and certainly does not say ‘the carbon tax will cost families $800 more on food ». https://t.co/qXymaaEuyE
— Marc Lévesque (@MarcLevesqueEco) December 5, 2024
Rhéal Fortin worried about the future of Lion Electric (Guilbeault: This is an important company and thanks to our federal transit electrification programme, they will get orders; Turnbull: We know where the puck is going, and that’s a cleaner future, and we will make every effort to work with them to get projects across the finish line), and Xavier Barsalou-Duval demanded more support for the company (Fraser: The federal government will help schools bus and transit fleets modernise with our zero emission transition fund)l
Stephen Ellis returned to the false correlation between food insecurity and the carbon levy (Fraser: It’s hard to take seriously your questions when you opposed a tax cut on food; You just don’t care about people, it’s all politics), and Warren Steinley read more of the same (Bendayan: Those are crocodile tears).
Bonita Zarrillo worried about family doctors—which is a provincial issue (Naqvi: We are making unprecedented investments in the healthcare system), and Taylor Bachrach wanted a restoration of the northern residents tax deduction for Haida Gwaii (Vandal: We will work with partners).
Round three saw more questions on gun violence (O’Connell: On the anniversary of one of the largest mass shootings in Canadian history, you are looking to weaken gun laws; Virani: Our track record speaks for itself, but your party’s ability to resistance to online safety is unconscionable; Bendayan: We have taken concrete action to remove war weapons from circulation, which don’t belong in our communities), ending the religious exemption to hate speech (Virani: We are aware of a rising hate, but we want to study this proposal in depth, but there is already legislation on the table they can support as well; We are willing to debate your bill, but we also need to pass Bill C-63), a “crime wave” (Virani: Bill C-75 codified existing Supreme Court jurisprudence and increased bail conditions on more offences; Here are quotes from police chiefs about the provinces not resourcing courts), the deficit number (Bendayan: We have the lowest debt and deficit in the G7, but the statement is upcoming; We haven’t even had a single quarter of negative growth; Anand: In their time of need, Canadians need a government who is there for them), Danielle Smith bringing workers from the UAE (Petitpas Taylor: Our priority is Canadian jobs, and we have made changes to the temporary foreign workers programme), and affordable housing dollars versus of CMHC definitions (Fraser: The majority of grant programmes are for social housing with other market-based mechanisms).
The Conservatives denied consent for a motion relating to their First Nations Drinking Water Bill. Jamie Battiste took his water glass and moved into the aisle, berating the Conservatives for denying it. #HoC
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-12-05T20:21:22.943Z
Overall, it was a lower-key day, with fewer verb-the-noun slogans than usual, and even Jasraj Hallan was slightly more coherent than usual as he didn’t have as many slogans to cram into his usual word salad questions. Nevertheless, there was little to recommend the day, as the Liberals continued to tout their intellectually bankrupt “GST holiday” in response to questions where it wasn’t really appropriate. I did appreciate that, finally, Arif Virani did call out the disinformation about the previous Bill C-75 on bail, but this was blunted by the fact that he kept hammering onto the online harms bill instead of answering questions that were bit put to him. This remains more of the same as the fall sitting teeters toward a close.
Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Randeep Sarai for a dark grey suit with a white shirt and turban with a light purple tie, and to Iqra Khalid for a fuchsia suit with a black button-up top. Style citations go out to Rachel Blaney for a teal sweater with pink and yellow snowflakes (I think) over black slacks, and to Sébastien Lemire for a navy jacket over a pink floral shirt, black tie, and light grey slacks.