For Wednesday, proto-PMQ day, you would generally expect all of the leaders to be present because they will try to take as much of the spotlight as possible, so imagine my surprise that Candice Bergen was absent yet again today, meaning she has been present less than the PM on the past couple of weeks.
Oral questions, quéstions orales! #QP pic.twitter.com/YcUJ26J2xj
— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) May 4, 2022
Luc Berthold led off, and he started off on the RCMP memo on the Aga Khan vacation, and he wanted agreement that there is no time limit to crimes. Justin Trudeau read that this was a distraction from their support for the occupation, while they should be focused on things like the war in Ukraine. Berthold insisted that the RCMP should pursue charges in light of “new evidence,” while Trudeau repeated that the Conservatives were focusing on personal attacks instead of what matters to Canadians. Berthold pivoted to federal vaccine mandates and demanded that they be ended, and Trudeau rose to extemporaneously praise Canadians who did the right thing and got vaccinated. Melissa Lantsman worried that unvaccinated international travellers were mixing with people on airplanes so there was no point in keeping up those measures, but Trudeau disputed this, and insisted that measures kept Canadians safe. Lantsman tried to insinuate that the government was being secretive about the evidence they get, but Trudeau disputed the Conservatives’ assertion that Canadians were divided, when they united to getting vaccinated and being there for each other through the pandemic.
Berthold is trying to be cute about the RCMP memo, ignoring that the same memo said there was no evidence to pursue charges. #QP pic.twitter.com/kT7Dniinps
— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) May 4, 2022
Order! #QP pic.twitter.com/12hopnPVyd
— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) May 4, 2022
Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and he demanded that the federal government turn over immigration authority to Quebec, worrying that they wanted to impose their own targets on the province. Trudeau insisted that they always work with Quebec on their immigration targets and they were willing to help them grow them. Blanchet tried again, and got the same time.
Blanchet is scandalised that the federal government won’t turn over immigration authority to Quebec. #QP pic.twitter.com/mZttQZTHto
— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) May 4, 2022
Jagmeet Singh got up for the NDP to demand that the federal government hasn’t done enough to increase access to abortion, and wanted federal funding for contraception. Trudeau recited a paean to a woman’s right to choose. Singh insisted this was about lives and not a political wedge, before he repeated the question in French, and Trudeau listed actions they have taken to claw back funding from New Brunswick for their denying funds for an abortion clinic.
https://twitter.com/MikePMoffatt/status/1521922136482492417