QP: Quoting Trump or Chamberlain?

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The prime minister was present today, as was his deputy and most other leaders, save Jagmeet Singh. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and raised the “whistleblower” testimony around the STDC and his accusation that the minister lied about it. Justin Trudeau rose and spoke instead about the supposed $2 million price tag of the vote-a-thon about the things the Conservatives voted against. Poilievre switched to English to repeat the same question, and Trudeau repeated his same response, adding in a “Republican-style” epithet in there. Poilievre responded to the “stone age” quip with saying people were being forced to eat “stone soup,” before demanding the prime minister tell “his Senators” to vote for Bill C-234 (there are no Liberal senators). Trudeau kept reading a list of things the Conservatives voted against. Poilievre insisted that the government’s spending was all useless and didn’t do anything they promised but cause inflation, and Trudeau read some talking points about Putin’s war in Ukraine that was raising food prices, and said the Conservatives were plying into the Kremlin’s hands by voting against Ukraine. Poilievre insisted this was just a distraction and “spreading falsehoods about faraway lands” and demanded the government cut the carbon price. Trudeau listed yet more things the Conservatives voted against.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and he raised jurisdictional questions around dental care, and said that this was just about throwing “sweets and candy” to the NDP. Trudeau said it was funny that he was talking about sweets and candy while he was trying to fix the teeth of people who can’t afford it. Blanchet insisted that the programme “harms Quebec,” and Trudeau reiterated his feel-good talking points about people getting the care they need.

Alexandre Boulerice rose for the NDP to demand the government demand a ceasefire in Gaza, and Trudeau insisted that their positions has been “responsible” about protecting civilians and establishing a two-state solution, and that they would continue to help Canadians see eye-to-eye.  Heather McPherson called the Canadian position “appalling,” and repeated the demand for a ceasefire in English. Trudeau reiterate his same points in English, and mentioned the statement he just put out with Australia and New Zealand, but didn’t mention the language of a “sustainable ceasefire” in the statement.

Round two, and Michael Barrett read an outrage script about SDTC (Champagne: The Conservatives want to attack anything to fight climate change, even institutions they created), Rick Perkins read more of the same (Hutchings: I wish you could have stood up for funding Atlantic organisations; Champagne: Here are things you voted against), and Luc Berthold read the scripts en français (Lebouthillier: You just chop, chop, chop; Duclos: Why did you vote against dental care?)

Martin Champoux worried about CBC CEO going on a trip to Australia—as though the government has any say (St-Onge: Her mandate comes to an end in 2025 and we will start a selection process next year; We are working with the media sector to fight this crisis), and Sébastien Lemaire wanted a public inquiry for abuse in sport rather than the announced commission (Qualtrough: We chose a victim-centred, trauma-informed process).

Kyle Seeback declared there was a “coast-to-coast-to-coast revolt” against the carbon price before falsely blaming it for food prices (Wilkinson: When we took office, emissions were on a path to increase but we have reduced them; Sudds: If you cared about families, you would have voted for our programmes), and Dominique Vien railed about the “inflationary” carbon prices affecting Quebec (Lebouthillier: You ignore the values of Quebeckers; Rodriguez: Quebeckers are wondering why the Conservatives voted against dental care and the Lac Mégantic bypass).

Leah Gazan decried that only two calls for justice from the MMIW report have been achieved (Anandasangaree: We have a whole of government approach and invested $125 million in the last budget), and Charlie Angus asked about a particular First Nation (Hajdu: I have been meeting with them on a quarterly basis to solve their crisis).

Round three saw more outrage scripts on the carbon price (O’Connell: If you want to talk about food affordability, you need to think about Ukraine, and Poilievre quoted Donald Trump to dismiss these concerns; Freeland: The Conservative leader inadvertently showed his true colours, and couldn’t use the term Ukraine but said “a faraway land,” which was used by a Neville Chamberlain; Boissonnault: How many of you are going to see Tucker Carlson in Calgary?; Hutchings: You voted against ACOA funding last week, which was 95 projects in your riding; MacAulay: You voted against all agricultural programmes last week; O’Regan: Is the way to support farmers or First Nations to cut their funding?; van Koeverden: Canadians have questions for your party after your leader’s $2 million temper tantrum, and why do you want to take away rebates or betray Ukraine?). It also saw questions on reimbursing Quebec for asylum seekers (Miller: We have a good relationship with Quebec, and we have an accord), the CEO of CBC (St-Onge: You cut CBC when you were in power), social and cooperative housing (Fraser: We did increase funding, and the Conservatives voted against it), a plan to replace open-net fisheries (Lebouthillier: We are developing a responsible transition plan). 

Overall, there was some animation off the top as Trudeau was going hard against the Conservatives’ vote-a-thon the other day, but it wound up looking evasive when it came to the question being asked that should have some serious answers, like the situation at SDTC, where there are multiple narratives floating around and some government clarity would be nice. While I know everyone wants Trudeau to hit back at Poilievre more, I’m not sure this was the best way to do it. That said, Poilievre’s dismissal of Ukraine as “faraway lands” was pounced upon by the Liberals who found quotes from both Donald Trump and Neville Chamberlain to compare it to, which was all over social media by shortly after the time QP had ended. Regardless, this sitting cannot end soon enough, and MPs need to be sent home.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Mike Kelloway for an eggplant suit with a crisp white shirt and a matching eggplant paisley tie, and to Rechie Valdez for a blue-grey suit with a white collared shirt. Style citations go out to Patty Hajdu for a black dress with huge red florals, and to Gerald Soroka for a dark grey suit with a faded fluorescent blue shirt and a grey and black striped tie.