While the PM was in town on a rainy Monday, he was not in QP today, nor were some of the other leaders. Pierre Poilievre was, however, and he led off in French, blaming government deficits for lines at food banks and rising housing costs, and demanded that the government reverse these “inflationary” policies in the budget. (Never mind that inflation is currently in the target band). Steven MacKinnon said that they would be talking about this in the coming weeks, but that last week, Poilievre questioned the independence of the RCMP, and that he had the opportunity to apologies, and would never. Poilievre would not, saying the Liberals were trying to distract from inflation with their “corruption,” and and listed the false “taxes” that he claimed were raising prices, and demanded they be lifted. MacKinnon again gave Poilievre the change to apologise for his remarks. Poilievre switched to English to repeat his claims that government spending is driving people to poverty, and demanded a cap to the “inflationary deficit” and the “insane” taxes on groceries that don’t exist. MacKinnon, still in French, said that Poilievre was making stuff up in order to change the channel. Poilievre then pivoted, and demanded the government release the unredacted Stellantis contract so that they could see the job guarantees. Mélanie Joly said that Stellanits’ actions are unacceptable, and that they agreed to the production of documents at committee. Poilievre demanded specifics about the job guarantees in the contract. Joly said that she just met with the Canadian head of Stellantis to impress upon them that the jobs must remain in Brampton. Poilievre demanded more specifics about the job guarantees, and Joly said they were putting full pressure on the company.
Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and raised a particular “hate-preacher” making a lecture tour in Canada, and demanded an end of the religious exemption to hate speech. Steven Guilbeault said that any hate speech is unacceptable, and they will use tools to fight it. Normandin repeated her demand again, and Guilbeault raised their plan to fight online hate speech. Rhéal Fortin made the same demand one more time, and Guilbeault praised Bill C-9 on hate speech, and said the government was proactive.
Round two, and John Barlow again raised the fictional “hidden taxes” on food (Hajdu: We announced that we are making the school food programme permanent and we hope you’ll support it), Connie Cody read another script of the same fictions (Hajdu: Same answer), Kelly DeRidder read another script of these fictions (McLean: You guys vote against feeding children), Dominique Vien read the same script in French (Gainey: Those are imaginary taxes but we are delivering for families).
Conservatives can’t stop/won’t stop inventing imaginary “hidden taxes” on food.Too bad the government won’t properly rebut this nonsense and will instead pay themselves on the back for their programmes. #QP
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-10-20T18:32:48.790Z
Jean-Denis Garon listed the Bloc’s demands for budget support, including more health transfers with no strings, enriched seniors pensions, a permanent housing transfer to Quebec, an unconditional infrastructure transfer to Quebec, and reimbursement to Quebec for the final carbon levy rebate (MacKinnon: You recently said you wouldn’t support it at all, so maybe you should wait to read it; We have 42 MPs from Quebec so we know what Quebeckers need).
Philip Lawrence worried about the size of the deficit (Long: We are delivering for Canadians including automated tax filing; We will table the most transformational budget in our history on the 4th), Tamara Jansen read another script of the same (McLean: You only want to make cuts that would take food out of children’s mouths), and William Stevenson read another of the same scripts (Turnbull: Here are some quotes about how our finances are sustainable).
Round three saw yet more questions on the Stellantis contract (Joly: Their decision is unacceptable so we are working towards to ensure those jobs are secured; Those documents will presented to the committee; Our industries are the victims of the unjust tariffs; LeBlanc: Just because you recite a conspiracy theory with great indignation, it doesn’t make it true; That information will be heading to committee; We understand you don’t like to work with Premier Ford but we are working with all premiers to counter the unjustified tariffs). There were also questions on the deficit (MacKinnon: You will have to wait for the budget to see the figures; Long: Here are some facts about or position internationally; LeBlanc: Your leader attacked the RCMP and refuses to apologise), getting mines started in the “Ring of Fire” (Hajdu: I’m surprised you didn’t ask about the paper mill in your riding we supported), support for softwood lumber because of tariffs (Hodgson: We have offered support for the sector).
Overall, there was a weird dynamic in the Chamber, with the Conservatives going on about their half-baked “hidden taxes” nonsense, coupled with the farcical notion about “inflationary deficits” when inflation is well within the target band at the current moment. And while the government had the chance to hammer Poilievre over and over again about his Dollarama Trumpism comments about the RCMP, it got a mere three mentions from Steve MacKinnon off the top, and one from Dominic LeBlanc at the end. That was it. It seemed like they were passing up an opportunity to do some real damage to Poilievre, while they were in the midst of their usual back-patting about things like the school food programme.
The only new thing today was the demands to know what Poilievre and others were demanding to know what job guarantees were in the Stellantis contract with the government, which was a battle they were having in committee to get the documents, and lo, they got a commitment to have those documents released (though I am not sure about the status of redactions). In any case, Mélanie Joly could have made it clearer that they are not taking yes for an answer, because she had to try and look like she was talking tough to Stellantis.
Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Eric Duncan for a blue suit with a crisp white shirt and a bright purple tie, and to Sandra Cobena for a navy jacket with cropped sleeves and matching slacks over a white top. Style citations go out to and to Kelly DeRidder for a dusky rose overcoat over a light pink collared shirt and blue-grey slacks, and to John-Paul Danko for an orange-grey suit over a white shirt with a blue striped tie and a navy pocket square.