QP: Two solitudes and a scripted gotcha

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The first Monday after a constituency week, and the prime minister was off to deliver a “fireside chat” at a union event, but his deputy was present for a change, and this was to be her first opportunity to answer questions since the budget was released. Most but not all of the other leaders were also present. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, cited a figure that said that 25 percent of Quebeckers are below the poverty line, and blamed the federal government’s spending with Bloc support. Chrystia Freeland noted their commitment to tax fairness versus Conservative austerity. Poilievre worried about debt servicing charges and again blamed Bloc support, to which Freeland said this wasn’t true, noted the Aaa credit rating, and their responsibility. Poilievre switched to English to lament the scourge of open drug use in BC, and demanded these drugs be re-criminalized. Ya’ara Saks said that they are reviewing the request of BC, because they have a plan for public health while the Conservatives did not. Poilievre insisted that this was chaos and disorder brought about by the Liberals demanding to know “What the hell are they thinking?” and got a caution from the Speaker. Steve MacKinnon got up to raise the fact that Poilievre was consorting with a far right encampment and got drowned out, and when the Speaker restored order, MacKinnon invited him to disavow white supremacists and Alex Jones. Poilievre says he disavows the person who spent the first half of of his life being a racist—meaning Trudeau—before demanding the federal government not allow Toronto decriminalise drugs like BC has. MacKinnon read a script about Poilievre showing who he really is.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and raised a poll that said Quebeckers want the provincial government to take care of things, not the federal government, and demanded unconditional fiscal transfers. Pablo Rodriguez said that the Bloc were simply trying to find excuses to vote against the budget. Therrien raised all of the premiers writing that they want unconditional transfers instead of federal interference, and Rodriguez repeated that the Bloc were merely looking to pick a fight.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and he denounced the government’s disability benefit in the budget, to which Freeland patted herself on the back for this programme, and insisted this was just the first step which meant working carefully with provinces. Singh repeated the question in French, and Freeland repeated her same response. 

Round two, and Kerry-Lynne Findlay read a script of the scourge of open drug use in BC (Saks:  You guys have a big talk about treatment but cut services when you were in power, while safe supply and consumption sites saves lives; Slogans are not an evidence-based policy), Laila Goodridge read the same (Saks: More of the same; Holland: The only thing to rise and meet this moment is with truth and evidence, not trying to seek opportunities to attack), Todd Doherty gave a more emphatic recitation of the same (Holland: What evidence are you basing your position on?), and Stephen Ellis gave his script with added slogans (Saks: We are trying to ensure people who use drugs don’t die alone, and a full suite of measures are needed).

Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe worried about an apartment housing five families because they can’t get work permits or asylum applications (Miller: It takes three months for a permit, not two years, and you should support the budget which has billions for housing; We have decreased processing times over the past few months, so you should support our legislation to regularise those living in Canada).

John Barlow demanded the government pass Bill C-234 unamended (MacKinnon: You can call it up for a vote at any time; Freeland: Our budget offers fairness for every generation, but you’re opposed to that), and Lianne Rood demanded the same under the false rubric that this is driving people to food banks (Freeland: Fairness for every generation!)

Lindsay Mathyssen accused the government of supporting a company arming Israeli soldiers (Blair: We have a rigorous military export regime, and any exports must meet the standards), and Heather McPherson thundered more of the same (Joly: We have been clear that the violence in the Middle East must stop).

Round three saw yet more questions on federal spending (MacKinnon: Your leader visited a far-right encampment and the endorsement of Alex Jones?; Champagne: The budget is about generational fairness, and last week we invested in semiconductor production in Quebec; Freeland: When you guys were last in power, you tried to raise the age of retirement; We are respecting the fiscal guardrails; Fraser: We have a plan to build more homes while your plan would make it worse). It also saw questions on delisting a federal port in Quebec (LeBlanc: I intend to raise this issue with the CBSA; Rodriguez: When there is a change in ownership, the operations don’t carry over automatically, so we are engaged in this), “foreign replacement workers” at the subsidised auto plants (Champagne: You shouldn’t spread disinformation), car theft (Virani: You keep voting against our measures to combat this), more safe consumption sites (Saks: We need expert advice), and a deportation order (Miller: We don’t talk about these matters on the floor of the House of Commons).

Overall, it was a very strange day overall, where everyone was talking past one another with their own messages—far worse than usual. The Conservative were operating in two very different discourses, one in French, the other in English, and they did not intersect at all, which is unusual in and of itself. In French, all of the questions were blaming federal spending on poverty in Quebec, and accusing the Bloc of enabling it, which is rich, and transparently a dumb attempt to make a play for Bloc votes in the province. Meanwhile, in English, it was all a series of overwrought cries about the limited drug decriminalisation in BC and how that has turned to open drug use, and demanding the federal government end the exemption and re-criminalise all drugs in the province. Again, weird and unusual to have two completely different discourses in each language, rather than playing to get clips in both languages.

And how did the government respond? On the accusations that it was federal spending causing poverty, Freeland would praise the “generational fairness” in the budget, and occasionally dispute the assertion because of the country’s Aaa credit rating. And for more than a few times with the BC questions, government House Leader Steve MacKinnon read a prepared script calling on Poilievre to denounce the far-right extremists whose encampment he visited last week, and to denounce Alex Jones’ endorsement, which Poilievre did not do, and instead insisted that the prime minister was the unrepentant racist. The fact that MacKinnon had this fully scripted out, followed by a back-bench suck-up question on the same topic from Mark Gerretsen, was just sad, scripted theatre for something that they could but some rhetorical fire behind if they didn’t make it look like this was an obviously scripted performance the whole time. Seriously, guys. If you’re reading your condemnation from a piece of paper, you’re doing it wrong. Honestly.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Randeep Sarai for a blue-grey suit over a white shirt with a purple tie and pocket square and a white turban, and to Mélanie Joly for an olive green jacket over a white top and black slacks. Style citations go out to Rosemarie Falk for a pink top with darker pink florals and a pussy bow over black slacks, and to Jagmeet Singh for an overly boxy double-breasted dark grey suit over a light blue shirt, and overly wide black tie, and an eggplant turban.