The prime minister was off to Mexico City, and most of the other leaders weren’t present either. Pierre Poilievre was, however, and he led off in English, and compared Mexico’s economic growth compared to Canada’s (as though there were different baselines or circumstances). Mélanie Joly praised Carney’s trip before reminding him that there is a global trade war that is affecting us. Poilievre insisted that we both trade with the U.S., and that they must be doing something right. Joly accused Poilievre of always talking down Canadian workers, and praised yesterday’s interest rate cuts. Poilievre switched to French to say that they support workers, then accused the Liberals of “collapsing” the economy, before repeating his first question about their growth rates. Joly said that Poilievre doesn’t know what he’s talking about, and praised the interest rate cuts as good news, and said that we need to work with trade partners to grow the economy. Poilievre returned to English to accuse Carney of only heading to Mexico for a photo op, and then repeated the line that the economy is “collapsing,” and Joly said that Poilievre believes in isolationism while the government is engaging abroad. Poilievre said that we already have trade agreements and that this trip was just for fake engagement, and said Carney could ask those other counties why they’re doing so much better than we are. Maninder Sidhu patted himself on the back for the trading relationships Canada has. Poilievre said he was taking credit for things he never did while the economy collapses, to which Sidhu said he wouldn’t go to personal attacks, before reading off some trade statistics with Mexico.
Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and she accused the government of attacking the ability of Quebec to pass their own laws with their factum to the Supreme Court of Canada in an upcoming hearing. Steven Guilbeault says that the government has a duty to protect the Charter. Normandin repeated the accusation, which was wholly specious in its arguments, and again Guilbeault said that they are not preventing any province from invoked the Clause, and he could organise a presentation through the department of Justice. Rhéal Fortin returned to his same questions as earlier in the week, attacking a judicial appointment on false grounds. Patricia Lattanzio read a statement about the independence of the judiciary.
Round two, and Andrew Scheer accused the government of delaying justice reforms and demanded the government pass the Conservatives’ bill today (Anandasangaree: Canadians gave us a mandate, and three strikes laws don’t work, and failed in every jurisdiction they were applied; Sahota: We are focused on practical solutions and not American-style politics), Frank Caputo railed about a drug bust in Alberta (Anandasdangaree: Police are doing their jobs), Michael Guglielmin recited his own script (Sahota: You should pass C-2 in order to let Canada Post search mail), Rob Moore decried the upcoming gun buyback (Anandasangaree: Canadians gave us a mandate), Dominique Vien said she no longer walks alone at night in because she’s afraid and wanted a three-strikes law (Lattanzio: We have already committed to tabling a bill, and community safety is our priority; Provost: You should pass Bill C-2).
This just in: Andrew Scheer is lying in Question Period. I’m as shocked as you are. #QP
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-09-18T18:32:50.319Z
Patrick Bonin decried that a recent report says Canada won’t meet our climate targets (Dabrusin: I’m glad you share our interest in the environment; We are working with the provinces in order to retrofit homes).
Andrew Lawton shouted about something that is not the federal government’s responsibility to decry bail laws (Sahota: We are tabling new legislation and you should pass Bill C-2), Arpan Khanna said the government is “obstructing” Conservative laws (Anandasangaree: Slogans are not going to stop crime), Pierre Paul-Hus read the crime script in French (Lattanzio: We work with provinces and territories to deal with the bail system and are giving prosecutors more tools), Shelby Kramp-Neuman decried that there was no deal with Trump (Joly: We have the best deal now; Louis: We have an integrated trading relationship and we have the best deal now).
Are the Conservatives aware that the Mexicans allowed the Americans to violate their territorial sovereignty to get that trade deal? Could a single Liberal minister spell that out? FFS #QP
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-09-18T18:48:13.716Z
A back-bench suck-up question on improving CRA call-centres has turned into a giant childish round of self-owning catcalls and shouting, that has gone on for the better part of five minutes. #QP
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-09-18T18:55:21.403Z
Round three saw questions on the deficit (Turnbull: Canadians are getting tired of the Conservatives’ chicken-little routine; inflation is in the target range and the Bank of Canada dropped rates), EI claims being up (Hajdu: Canadians chose a government that invests in Canadians; We did make changes to make it easier for people to get EI when they need it), food price inflation (van Koevereden: Maybe you should have read the report from Food Banks Canada on their suggestions about strengthening the social safety net; Lightbound: The trade war is having a huge impact on food inflation, but Conservatives vote against measures to help Canadians; Canadians chose us to invest in projects to strengthen the economy while protecting social programmes), BC Ferries (Robertson: I was disappointed but the reality was there were no Canadian bids, so we are taking action on that; You are twisting facts about jurisdictions and arm’s-length decisions), shelters in Toronto (Robertson: Hooray for investments in transitional housing), Canada Post (Lightbound: This is a vital service, and I hope all parties will reach an agreement), and a food voucher programme in Nunavut (Chartrand: We are supporting Indigenous-led housing solutions, and expanding access to traditional foods).
Albas seems to think the transport minister had a jurisdictional magic wand. #QP
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-09-18T19:09:02.705Z
Overall, the day was dominated by two main items that were not the clips gathered earlier in the week—the issue with Mexico and the concern trolling about their growth rates, and a whole lot of tough-on-crime nonsense. Of course, there was little change in just how useless the government has been in responding to any of these issues, whether it’s providing context to why Mexico’s growth rate is different than Canada’s, or why the Conservatives’ tough-on-crime calls are either nonsense of should be laid at the feet of the premiers, whose jobs include policing and administration of justice. The government remains reluctant to call out the premiers for their failures, and it allows the Conservatives to keep carting out utter horseshit about what is happening within the justice system, and let it go unchallenged.
I will add that there were a couple of call-outs—Patty Hajdu not taking the way her own words were being twisted, and Adam van Koeverden in pointing out that the Conservatives who keep brining up the Food Banks Canada report didn’t actually bother to read it and what its suggestions actually are. We need much more of this, but again, the government never wants to do that. So things continue to be utterly terrible, and lies go unchallenged, because somehow they think it doesn’t matter, and they just get the clips they’re after, and that’s all. IT’s self-defeating, it’s bad for democracy, but nobody seems to care enough to change.
Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Maninder Sidhu for a tailored dark grey suit over a light blue shirt and a dark pink tie, and to Joanne Thompson for a black suit over a white long-sleeved top. Style citations go out to Ruby Sahota for a brown long-sleeved, collared button-up dress, and to Kurt Holman for a light grey suit with a black shirt and a dark blue striped tie. Dishonourable mention goes out to Anna Roberts for a dark yellow jacket over a black top and slacks.