All of the leaders were present today, as is customary for a Wednesday, even if Wednesdays are no longer the pronto-PMQs of Trudeau’s era. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and demanded to know the size of the deficit. Prime minister Mark Carney responded that the budget will be on November 4th, and it would have the biggest investment in the country’s future. Poilievre asked the same in English, and got much the same response. Poilievre returns to French to lament that we still don’t have an answer on the deficit, which creates uncertainty for business, and demanded to know the number. Carney thanked him for the compliment about being a fiscal expert, and said that the trade war left uncertainty that made sure they have to do what they can control. Poilievre repeated the same in English, and this time, Carney boasted that interest rates were lower in Canada than the U.S. Poilievre dismissed this as saying that was because the economy was collapsing, and then claimed that a liberal members of the finance committee threatened the Parliamentary Budget Officer’s job (while someone chirped that didn’t happen). Carney said that he just the PBO, and that he didn’t recognise the characterisation. Poilievre said that the post was temporary in order to hold a sword over his head, and then demanded he be made permanent and demanded a deficit figure. Carney said that if they wanted him to be permanent, he would be open to consulting on that in the new spirit of collaboration.
Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and worried that the government was going to table something on the use of the Notwithstanding Clause, and demanded it be allowed to be used by provinces, even in a “preventative” measure. Carney said that the government’s job is to uphold the Charter and it was up to the Supreme Court to determine what is and is not legal. Blanchet claimed that putting limits on use of the Clauses was denigrating the Memory of a Pierre Trudeau, and Carney dismissed this, saying this was up to the Supreme Court to rule on. Blanchet accused the government of hiding behind the Court, and attacking Quebec’s state secularism, to which Carney reminded him that this is the legislative branch, not the judiciary.
Round two, and Kelly Block read a script about the deficit and inflation (Champagne: I’m happy that you’re eager to see our budget and the generational investments in it; Interest rates have gone down), Raquel Dancho read the same script (Hajdu: People chose a Liberal government because they need investment; Joly: The Bank of Canada reduced interest rates, and we are there for businesses who need to adapt), Lianne Rood gave her own recitation of the same script (Gainey: We are getting busy with nation-building projects), Luc Berthold read the same script in French (Champagne: We will have a generational investment plan in the budget; Lightbound: We cut taxes and are unifying the economy).
Rhéal Fortin once again tried to contest the appointment of a particular judge in Quebec (Fraser: The process for appointing judges is independent and we will defend that), and particularly took issue with his positions on Quebec’s discriminatory laws when he was a law professor (Fraser: The rule of law is a fundamental pillar of our democracy, and we must maintain the independence of this process).
Scot Davidson worried about food bank use (Zerucelli: Hooray for our Major Projects Office; Long: We got a resounding message from Canadians to spend less on government operations and invest more), Laila Goodridge read the same script (Hajdu: You keep voting against help for Canadians; McLean: We are taking action for seniors), and Joël Godin gave the French version of the script (Lightbound: We will have the strongest economy in the G7 with our investments).
Round three saw questions on bail reform (Sahota: Hooray for our border bill, and we have bail reform on the way; Fraser: I hope you support our reforms when they are tabled; We condemn horrific acts and our next bill will restrict conditional release orders; You didn’t read any of the bills you want to repeal), housing starts (Robertson: The projects we announced were just the start, and they will support up to 45,000 homes; You trash other people rather than look at yourselves, when you did nothing when you were in government; Conservative inaction left the entire country behind; Lightbound: We scrapped the GST on first homes, and we are doing a lot of work to build thousands of units), immigration numbers (Diab: Our action has taken and we have reduced growth to the lowest level since WWII), forestry tariffs (Hodgson: We have allocated $1.3 billion to the sector over three programmes), and imposing sanctions on Israel (Anand: The situation is intolerable and the situation before the ICC, but we are putting pressure on all parties for a ceasefire).
The Conservatives are taking about “three strikes” laws, because those worked so well in the US that they increased crime. Honest to Zeus, you guys… #QP
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-09-17T18:54:00.576Z
Overall, it was only slightly less cringe-worthy than yesterday, if only because Poilievre decided that he was going to go after the deficit figure rather than food bank use, and while there were questions on that later on, at least they talked about supports for Canadians rather than patting themselves on the back for housing this time. Poilievre also tried to insinuate that the Liberals are threatening the interim PBO that he’ll be fired if he does’t say nice things about him, and to his credit, Carney basically called Poilievre’s bluff saying that he’s willing to have a conversation about making him the permanent PBO “in the new spirit of collegiality,” but it was too late in the round for Poilievre to be able to respond on that particular point. On the subject of housing, Gregor Robertson did a slightly better job of calling out that falsehoods around the budget and goals of Build Canada Homes, but it’s clear he still has a long way to go.
Otherwise, I can see that “families can’t eat the word salad served up by that minister” is now an approved Conservative laugh line as this was the second or third time its was deployed, so slow clap for recycling your laugh lines like you recycle scripts. I did also want to pay particular note about the creeping xenophobia in the immigration questions, and while the minister had a marginally better response today, she is still proving to be particularly useless, and caused another tantrum after QP when her saying she would repeat it in English so that some could understand her was deemed to be insulting. Sigh.
Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Laila Goodridge for a navy blue jacket with a matching skirt with a white stripe with a white top, and to Tim Louis for a dark eggplant suit over a white shirt and a purple-grey tie. Style citations go out to Ernie Klassen for a light grey suit with a windowpane pattern over a fluorescent pink shirt and purple tie with a floral pattern, and to Tamara Kronis for a black jacket with a busy white floral pattern over it, over a black top and slacks.