The PM was again in town but otherwise absent from QP, and the same dynamics were at play in the Chamber. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and he raised today’s Statistics Canada inflation numbers, blaming government spending any taxes (even though taxes are anti-inflationary). François-Philippe Champagne praised the upcoming budget and the IMF suggestion that Canada and Germany had room to make generational investments. Poilievre then turned to the Auditor General’s report on the CRA and its call centres. Champagne responded with the “good news” that they are already partway through a one-hundred day action plan. Poilievre switched to English to repeat his first question on inflation, and Champagne repeated his same response from the IMF Director General. Poilievre repeated his same question on the Auditor General’s report on the CRA, and got a “take no lessons” from Champagne, who listed the things that Poilievre voted against. Poilievre dismissed “costly slogans” from the other side and got shouted down, and once things calmed, he raised the 1200 jobs at the GM plant in Ingersoll, and accused the government of betraying workers. Mélanie Joly assured him that Carney would fight for their jobs, and that she had a conversation with the CEO of GM this morning. Poilievre dismissed her efforts as all talk with no action (as though he could do anything differently if he were in power), and he repeated the accusation of betrayal. Joly said that they would hold these companies to account, before reading the new jobs at other plants.

Yves-François Blanchet rose for the Bloc, and he raised a “hate preacher” for a second day, and demanded the government close the religious exemption for hate speech. Steven Guilbeault agreed that hate speech has no place in Canada, and implored him support Bill C-9. Blanchet said that the bill doesn’t get to the issue of religious exemptions, and Guilbeault repeated his same answer. Blanchet insisted it would be easy to solve the problem, and said that they would be moving amendments they hoped the government would support. Guilbeault said that they are willing to hear amendments at committee.

Round two, and Melissa Lantsman returned to the issue of food price inflation and blamed government spending (Hajdu: You vote against help for Canadians like the school food programme; Canadians know there are no taxes on food), Scot Davidson read another script of the same (LeBlanc: Your leader needs to apologise to the RCMP; Gainey: We know families need supports so we supply them while you voted against them), Carol Anstey read the same script with more Karen energy (Thompson: We will ensure that single mothers in your riding get the benefits they deserve with automatic filing), Eric Lefebvre read the script in French (MacKinnon: We have chosen to support families, and you would have made the same choices when you were in the National Assembly in Quebec).

Mario Beaulieu railed that $52 million was spent to English language services in Quebec hospitals (Guilbeault: We have done the most for official languages in Canada, and we will meet our francophone immigration targets outside of Quebec—which has nothing to do with the question; MacKinnon: I am shocked because we are investing in essential services).

Jasraj Hallan raced through some insulting word salad on inflation (Long: We grew jobs in September and were in the best position in the G7; The economy is not shrinking, and we will invest in nation-billing projects), Ned Kuruc read another script on inflation (Long: Your leader has been spreading conspiracy theories and should apologise to the RCMP), Matt Strauss read another script of the same (Valdez: We cut taxes for 22 million Canadians, and we are making the school food programme permanent), and Bernard Généroux read the French/Quebec-centric version of the same script (Lightbound: You voted against supports, and your leader needs to apologise to the RCMP).

Round three saw questions on the Ingersoll plant announcement (Joly: We will fight for these jobs, and our goal is to get a new model for this plant), the contract with Stellantis (Joly: We will release it to committee, and Stellantis is on the hook; LeBlanc: The contract will be released to the committee, so putting forward conspiracy theories doesn’t serve any purpose), the Auditor General’s report on CRA (Champagne: We already acted and didn’t wait for a report; Long: We have embarked on an 100 day plan and things are improving but there is still a long way to go), deficits (MacKinnon: You should tell your leader to not go on podcasts, not for shawarma with crypto, and not call into question the independence of the RCMP; McLean: The only thing scary in her is the misinformation coming from the Conservatives, but yay dental care; MacKinnon: You never identify which spending is actually inflationary), the “Ring of Fire” approval (Hodgson: We have establish a regional assessment working group and are engaging with First Nations), auto plant closures in the face of Trump (Joly: These tariffs are having real impacts but we are working to push back against the decision of the company), and taking affordability seriously (Champagne: We have achieved a lot like dental care and school food).

Andrew Scheer accused Mélanie Joly of political theatre. Irony died. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-10-21T18:55:36.958Z

Overall, I will have to say that I had guessed wrong as to just what Poilievre would blame food price inflation on, figuring it would be another day of bemoaning imaginary “hidden taxes,” and while they did get mentioned a couple of times, it was mostly focused on the falsehood about “inflationary deficits.” The federal deficit is not responsible for inflation, because the Bank of Canada is not printing money to finance it. This is a fact. That hasn’t stopped Poilievre from whipping his caucus up into making increasingly ludicrous statements to this effect, over and over and over again. And does the government disabuse them of that notion ever? Nope. Even with a leader who is a former central banker, do they ever get an actual economics lesson? Of course not. Just the “good news” about the upcoming budget.

Meanwhile, it was Auditor General day, and only the report on the CRA’s call centre got mention, even though there were plenty of other fairly scathing reports today, whether it’s on First Nations, cybersecurity, or military recruitment and housing—there was plenty of material that responsible opposition parties should be pounding the government over, but what did we get? Inflationary deficits, the Bloc caterwauling that the federal government dared to fund some English services in Quebec hospitals, and accusing the government of selling out the auto industry. Could we get some serious parties in this Chamber? Please? 

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Leslie Church for a white suite over a black top, and to Maninder Sidhu for a tailored navy suit with a crisp white shirt and a navy tie with a tight diamond pattern. Style citations go out to and to Ernie Klassen for a khaki suit with grey vertical stripes with a white shirt and a dark blue patterned tie, and to Melissa Lantsman for a rare misstep—a multicoloured blue blouse with an oversized pussy bow with black slacks. Dishonourable mention goes out to Jessica Fancy for a black jacket with a dull yellow top.