QP: The “refusing to rule out” ploy

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On a bright and sunny Tuesday in the nation’s capital, both the prime minister and his deputy were present for QP, as were most of the other leaders (some of whom stated they would be here but were not). Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and he worried that the city of Montreal has requested the “legalization of hard drugs” in their communities, and wanted an admission that what happened in BC was a “deadly mistake,” lest the prime minister repeat the same problem. Trudeau reminded him that they are working with BC on modifying their project, and that they are working only with provinces, and no other requests have been made. Poilievre switched to a English to ask if the prime minster supports decriminalisation for using drugs in parks, hospitals or public transit, and Trudeau repeated his answer. Poilievre pointed out that Trudeau refused to answer his question, and suspected it means he wants to impose the same “radical” policy elsewhere. Trudeau said that nobody supports that, but that Poilievre was trying to use tragedies to score political points, and took a jab at Poilievre for willing to suspend Charter rights if he feels it suits him. Poilievre accused the prime minister of secretly planning to impose “legalisation” on Toronto, and Trudeau reminded him that they will only with with provinces, not the municipalities directly. Poilievre said that Trudeau was not ruling out future extensions, which was obviously ridiculous, before he accused the prime minister of killing more people in the meantime. Trudeau said that they only took three days to approve BC’s completed request, and that the opposition was only scoring cheap points.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and accused the government of threatening French, to which Trudeau gave a paean about defending the French language and language minorities around the country, while the Bloc was just picking fights. Blanchet raised comments by an MP about “extremists,” and Trudeau said that they stand for protecting French across the country. 

Peter Julian rose for the NDP in French, and took swipes at Conservatives for not supporting pharmacare legislation, and exhorted the government to support them in passing it (which is dumb, because it’s the government who needs their support as it’s government legislation). Trudeau thanked the NDP for their support, and said that the Conservatives were against it because their anti-choice members opposed contraception. Leah Gazan took the question in English, with more of an emphasis on birth control instead of diabetes, and Trudeau repeated his same response. 

Round two, and Melissa Lantsman accused the government of “destroying the futures” of youth (Freeland: We have a budget built on generation fairness, but young women need contraception to control their futures; We can’t trust Conservatives to actually tell the truth), Marty Morantz worried about the deficit (Freeland: Basic disinformation from the Conservatives, and this is what Tiff Macklem actually said; Fraser: Your plans would do less for housing than ours does), and Dominique Vien lied about what Tiff Macklem said, with a swipe at the Bloc along the way (Duclos: There are 205 units that have been built in your riding in recent months; Lebouthillier: Your only plans are to cut, cut, cut).

Mario Beaulieu railed about an MP who called them “extremists” when worried about the anglicisation of Montreal (Boissonnault: We know French is in decline and we are there to promote French all across the country; Joly: We have been clear that we stand to protect French, here and internationally; Rodriguez: We have protected French across Canada, and you voted against it).

Jacques Gourde tried to implicate the Bloc in rising housing prices (Champagne: Your are a party with no vision or ambition, and you consort with extremist groups; Bibeau: While you practice your performance for “Infoman,” we are helping Canadians save for a home), and Richard Lehoux read a script that was more of the same (Duclos: Your leader only built six housing units across the country; Fraser: You are using vulnerable Canadians for your own purposes, which is unacceptable).

Jenny Kwan demanded action on the findings of the Don Valley North nomination…two elections ago (LeBlanc: We have taken this seriously, we have been putting measures into place), and Lori Idlout worried about Amazon shipping fees to the North (Vandal: We have invested $150 million in Nutrition North).

Round three saw yet more questions on opioid deaths (MacKinnon: What rights will your leader take away?; Anand: We answered that, and Charter rights are non-negotiable; Saks: We said yes to BC’s request to amend their pilot project; Freeland: What hasn’t been answered is what rights your leader will take away; Joly: Your leader won’t condemn white supremacists and one of his members is making anti-abortion statements in this House). It also saw questions on CBC/Radio-Canada (St-Onge: French language programming will never be twinned with CBC and remain independent), allegations against Randy Boissonnault (MacKinnon: The minister follows the rules, but which rights does your leader want to take away?; You want to distract from the fact that you have always hated the Charter), listing the IRGC as a terrorist entity (LeBlanc: Decisions to list entities are based on advice from security services, and we have taken a number of measures to deal with them), shutting down open-net fish farms on the west coast (Lebouthillier: We are developing a transition plan for open-net fish farms), soccer in northern Indigenous communities (Qualtrough: We invested $220 million to help host FIFA games in Vancouver).

Overall, there wasn’t much in the way of fireworks today, and the two-solitudes of questions were toned down, though French questions still disproportionately blamed the Bloc for problems that they also attribute to the government being at fault for (because the logic starts getting pretty twisty). Nevertheless, the same falsehoods about the opioid crisis were being spouted, and unbeknownst to the Conservatives was that Benjamin Perrin, Stephen Harper’s former advisor who has since recanted on the tough-on-crime ideology and is advocating for public health measures to help addictions, was in the gallery above them (as he is a finalist for the Shaughnessy Cohen book prize). Poilievre insisting that Trudeau wouldn’t rule out extending decriminalisation and that must mean he plans to impose this on other cities was ridiculous, but was part of his ongoing attempt to extend this into his dystopian alternate reality where Trudeau is a jackbooted dictator trying to destroy the country. It’s both sad but also dangerous.

Meanwhile, the Liberals spent pretty much the entire third round overplaying their hand on Poilievre’s comments about the Notwithstanding Clause, alongside another Conservative MP’s comments about abortion earlier in the day. These are important, but by going off on these issues too early, the Liberals risk desensitising the public to them, particularly if they plan to keep this up for the next 18 months. Why does everyone have to be like this? Cripes.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Ed Fast for a black suit with a pale blue shirt and pale pink tie, and to Iqra Khalid for a maroon suit with a white scoop-necked top. Style citations go out to Marci Ien a smock top with faded giant florals over dark grey slacks, and to Paul Chiang for a grey windowpane jacket over a maroon top, black slacks, and a maroon tie with a gold pattern across it. Dishonourable mention goes out to Martin Shields for a black suit and shirt with a bright yellow tie. 

One thought on “QP: The “refusing to rule out” ploy”

  1. Jeez, there are some days you just wish the Opposition parties would say “No questions today, Mr. Speaker”, and sit down, instead of inventing things to be livid about.

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