After this morning’s surprising announcement that Andrew Scheer was resigning as Conservative leader, the PM was in his office but not present for QP (even though he had been in the House to respond to Scheer’s resignation just a couple of hours earlier). After a lengthy ovation, Scheer lamented last month’s job numbers, which I remind you was 100 percent bullshit, particularly his warnings about a “made-in-Canada recession.” Bill Morneau reminded him that while monthly job numbers are important, they would continue to invest in Canadians as that created over a million jobs. In French, Scheer demanded an economic update, and Morneau responded was that one would happen in the coming days. Scheer switched back to English to carry on his lament for the stage of the economy, giving misleading G7 job stats, to which Morneau repeated that their plan to invest was working, and that the economy was on track for the second-highest growth in the G7. Leona Alleslev was up next, and in French, concern trolled about the New NAFTA, and demanded impact assessments for it. Chrystia Freeland reminded her that the existential threat to our economy was now past, and endangering ratification was simply threatening the economy. Alleslev switched to English to worry about “repairing” our relationship with the US, and Freeland stated that the most important thing was ratifying the agreement. Yves-François Blanchet was up next, and he spun a sad tale of steel workers in Ontario being protected but aluminium workers in Quebec were not, to which Freeland reminded him that they got the tariffs repealed, and that the new agreement had 70 percent North American aluminium content requirements. Blanchet sang the praises of economic nationalism, and Freeland warned of the dangers of partisanship. Jagmeet Singh was up next, and demanded the government stop the judicial review of the Human Rights Tribunal compensation order, to which Marc Miller started that they were engaging partners to see that there was the fairest and most comprehensive compensation offered. Singh tried again in English, and Miller listed new measures they are in compliance with, and said that they were sitting down to get compensation right.

Round two, and Erin O’Toole set up a question on the International Rules-Based Order and the New NAFTA (Freeland: Here are ways in which the new agreement strengthens it), and tied it to aluminium rules-of-origin objectives (Freeland: We got the tariffs lifted, and got the 70 percent content requirement), Richard Martel repeated it in French (Freeland: We are committed to defending the sector and its workers), Colin Carrie worried about the “crisis” in the Canadian auto sector (Bains: We have le aged over $6 billion in investments over the past four years), Candice Bergen railed about jobs in the oil sector (O’Regan: Construction is underway on TMX, and Line 3 is open on the Canadian side). Marilène Gill returned to the aluminium questions (Freeland: same answer as before), and Kristina Michaud lamented that there was no explicit granting of environmental authority to the provinces in the Throne Speech (Garneau: There are joint environmental issues), and Christine Normandin lamented that the government wasn’t doing enough for Quebec (Rodriguez: We have Quebeckers in our benches too, and here are all kinds of things we’ve done for Quebec). Pierre Poilievre listed insolvency figures as a “warning” of a recession (Morneau: We are continuing to invest in Canadians). Niki Ashton and Charlie Angus returned to the compensation order (Miller: We are sitting down to determine the compensation process).

The Conservatives cheering on a “made-in-Canada recession” should probably read a few more reports from StatsCan and the Bank of Canada. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) December 12, 2019

Round three saw questions on Quebec’s demands in the Throne Speech (Garneau: This was about broad strokes, not details), exporting LNG (O’Regan: We have approved the largest LNG facility), Raif Badawi’s hunger strike in Saudi prison (Oliphant: We stand up for the right to free expression, and have engaged at the highest levels, including with the king and Crown Prince), rural Canadian needs including beef exports (Bibeau: The closure of the plant created problems but we can’t compromise food safety; The CFIA is working with the sector to develop a strong submission to World Animal Health Organization for spring 2020), rural infrastructure projects (Monsef: We have a fund carved out for them), people accused of gun crime being on bail (Blair: We will toughen gun control), a civil servant punished for publicly criticising the PM (Guilbeault: There is a grievance in this case that I can’t comment on), Pacific salmon stocks (Jordan: We are working with stakeholder groups), and the approval of the Teck Frontier Mine (Garneau: Under the new Impact Assessment Act, we will do our homework).

The Conservatives, who locked down the ability of civil servants to comment in the media, are shocked that one was punished for public criticism in the media. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) December 12, 2019

Overall, I find the fact that the Conservatives to be essentially cheerleading a “Made-in-Canada” recession to be a very curious thing, because none of the economic data shows that this is in the works. No, seriously — go look at the data from Statistics Canada and the reports coming out from the Bank of Canada, and you’ll see that this is not only irresponsible bullshit, but if they’re not careful, they might start creating a panic among Canadians which could affect the markets. “But those job numbers!” is the first plaintive wail, to which I would say that one month of bad jobs data is not going to rock the economy — not when the labour market has been running at virtual full employment for the past year. There are broader trends to consider, and for the Conservatives to cherry-pick a single-month indicator without looking deeper into the underlying data is not only misleading, it’s frankly irresponsible. (And you don’t have to take my word for it — here is Kevin Carmichael with the context on those job numbers). Otherwise, the day bore a lot of similarities to yesterday’s focus on the aluminium sector under the New NAFTA, with the added attempt to make this an Ontario-versus-Quebec issue, but nothing edifying was added to the conversation.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Dave Epp for a black three-piece suit with a light purple shirt, medium blue tie and pocket square, and to Stephanie Kusie for a black dress with a black jacket. Style citations go out to Christine Normandin for a puffy white blouse under a tight half-sleeved black jacket and black skirt, and to Bernard Généroux for a dark blue jacket, white shirt, tan slacks and a light blue patterned tie.