The prime minister was once again away, off to the UK after a morning meeting with the visiting Taoiseach of Ireland (who did come by to watch QP), and most of the other leaders absented themselves as well. Pierre Poilievre, however, was still here, and he led off in French, accusing the prime minister of “fleeing scandal and crime,” and began his daily list of the public safety minister’s supposed failures. François-Philippe Champagne stated that the prime minister was travelling to build Canada, and that the opposition should congratulate him. Poilievre repeated the same again in English, and Champagne praised the budget en anglais. Poilievre said that today was his birthday and he said that she complained about grocery prices, and he demanded the government eliminate “all taxes on groceries.” Patty Hajdu wished Poilievre’s mother a happy birthday before pointing out that the voted against the school food programme. Poilievre moved onto the PBO’s latest deficit projections and wondered how anyone could be worse than Trudeau. Champagne also wished his mother a happy birthday and said that she should be happy because her taxes got cut. Poilievre praised his mother’s ability to budget and lamented the government’s deficits. Hajdu again raised the school food programme that Conservatives voted against. Poilievre returned to French to repeat the question about the PBO’s numbers, and Champagne said ghat he wouldn’t want to tell Poilievre’s mother that he voted against child care, dental care, or the school food programme.
Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and she declared that Canada Post is an essential service that people needed. Joël Lightbound said that it was essential, which is why they needed to make reforms to ensure its viability, while maintaining services for seniors and people with disabilities. Normandin worried about the closure of rural post offices, and pointed to the essential nature in the remote areas. Lightbound assured her they would not abandon these communities. Marie-Hélène Gaudreau asked the same question about people who need at-home delivery and, Lightbound said that they will ensure those Canadians still have access, and that they needed to ensure the corporation would remain viable.
Round two, and Melissa Lantsman took a swipe at the public safety minister (Anandasangaree: the only one playing politics are you guys; We have a comprehensive plan to address gun crime), Blaine Calkins read another script of the same with more indignation (Anandasangaree: Law abiding citizens abide by the law), James Bezan worried about Iranians under sanction before turning that into a swipe at the minister (Anandasangaree: Last year, CBSA removed 18,000 ineligible people and this year they are on track to remove 22,000), Jeremy Patzer took another swipe at the minister (MacKinnon: Canadians have told us clearly that they want access to assault weapons to be severely limited), and Pierre-Paul Hus did the same in French with a special mention at African organised criminals (MacKinnon: The minster has already spoken about removals, but we need to repeat that Canadians don’t want assault weapons; Anandasangaree: The numbers of car thefts are down, and we invested in the border and in more scanners).
Anandasangaree: Law-abiding citizens abide by the law. Okay then. #QP
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-09-25T18:51:27.607Z
Rhéal Fortin railed that nobody wants to talk organised crime and wanted a ban on wearing their symbols (Fraser: We introduced a bill to protect communities from hate, which includes promotion of hate using symbols), and wanted the Hell’s Angels symbol in particular banned (Fraser: Maybe you should bring this up at committee when they study this bill).
Round three saw questions on the deficit and food prices (Hajdu: You voted against help like the school food programme; Here is a quote from a kid in grade seven; MacKinnon: You have never been to these programmes; Long: Our government will deliver a plan in November; Thompson: Hooray for the fisheries as a viable future; van Koeverden: Why did you vote against a school food programme?; Gainey: We have supported families; Belanger: We have supports for families across the country; Sahota: You raised the gun buyback programme, and they will be fairly compensated for prohibited firearms; Sidhu: Our international efforts are opening new doors for Canadian workers; McLean: We have supports for seniors; Chartrand: We have programmes for supporting country food in the North; MacDonald: We are investing to using canola seed for biofuels), using green energy to create youth jobs (MacKinnon: We will be tabling a “generational budget”), and the home retrofit programme (Dabrusin: We have been working with the provinces to help Canadians refit homes).
Jasraj Hallan says so many batshit stupid things that the government could utterly humiliate him on any given day, but they absolutely refuse to for reasons that escape me. #QP
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-09-25T18:50:32.619Z
Rachael Thomas claimed that “printing money” raised food prices. Did anyone correct her that nobody printed money and state unequivocally that this is not what raised prices?Of course not. #QP
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-09-25T18:58:48.367Z
Overall, the whole thing about Poilievre’s mother’s birthday started off a bit cute, but turned pretty tiresome really quickly, especially as each side wedged their points into its framework. The Bloc were the only ones who got exercised about the news of the day, being the Canada Post changes, as they happened, which also demonstrates how completely incapable the Conservatives tend to be about being nimble in order to follow their carefully-planned clip gathering scheme and the scripts associated with it. One other very curios thing I’ve noticed is that when it comes to their tough-on-crime questions, the Conservatives will only mention “African organised criminals” or “African Mafia” in French and not in English, which may have another motive than just trying to tie them to the Port of Montreal.
Meanwhile, it was another very repetitive day, with another round of clip-harvesting throughout the entire third round of getting as many MPs to stand up to ask the same question as possible, with as many ministers and parliamentary secretaries responding with increasingly disjointed talking points. There were also increasingly unhinged things being said about the cost of food, to this new insistence about “taxes on food,” which they include the industrial carbon price and the ban on single-use plastics. And once again, the government could actually push back on this stuff, but they never do, and it just festers.
Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Peter Fragiskatos for a tailored navy suit with a pink shirt and a blue paisley tie, and to Rebecca Chartrand for a black dress with a notched neckline under a light grey jacket. Style citations go out to Kelly DeRidder for a boxy dusky rose jacket over a light blue collared shirt and black slacks, and to John-Paul Danko for a orangey-brown suit with a white shirt and a dark blue striped tie and matching pocket square.