The PM was present today, as we learned he has been having pre-budget meetings with opposition leaders (for what it’s worth, given that the document is about to head to the printers). Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and raised his meeting with Mark Carney later in the day, and demanded an “affordable budget for an affordable life.” Carney assert that this budget would be bring operational spending under control while making major investments in capital projects. Poilievre said that the Liberals promised this a decade ago and we have only had economic ruin since, before again demanding an end to deficits and so-called “hidden taxes.” Carney reiterated they would clean up operational spending before reminding him that inflation remains in the target zone. Poilievre switched to English to repeat his first question, and Carney repeated his points about cleaning up operational spending to invest more, and that people have been doing better singe he became prime minister. Poilievre went on a rant about how Carney was telling people that they have never had it so good, to which Carney decided to give an economic lesson, pointing out that inflation is in the target zone, food inflation is in the G7 average, and that Canada is in the best position in the G7. Poilievre accused Carney of lecturing Canadians lining up at food banks—to which the Liberals shouted “you!”—and listed high food prices. Carney pointed to his tax cuts and stated he was here for single mothers and Canadians. Poilievre again railed about the inflation figures, and Carney again listed off his bullet points of his budget promises for operational spending and capital investment.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, raised another auto plant closing because of tariffs, and demanded action from the government. Carney stated their disappointment with the closures, and stated that they were still negotiating but Canada still has the best deal possible. Blanchet dismissed this as not being enough, and demanded other assurances in the negotiations. Carney promised they would protect Supply Management and Quebec culture in the negotiations. Blanchet wanted assurances for forestry, and Carney reminded him that they have a fund to help the sector.

Round two, and Poilievre got back up to quote the “Food Professor” and claim that the industrial carbon price was raising food prices (Carney: The Canadian Climate Institute says that there is no impact of this price on food; MacKinnon: We keep hearing about these imaginary taxes that no one else can see; Hajdu: Canadians trust us because we don’t vote against things like the school food programme), he raised auto plant closures and accused the government of selling out the sector (Carney: There is no “I” in “team” but there is one in “Conservative” and we have the best deal with the Americans of any country and the lowest tariff of any country but we are negotiating a new accord; LeBlanc: We are fighting for those auto job), demanded an end to the EV mandate (Joly: We have auto workers’ backs and we will hold Stellantis to account), and he accused the government of selling it to China (MacDonald: We are protecting our trade interests and expanding into new markets).

Poilievre is trying to claim that the “Food Professor” is more credible than the Canadian Climate Institute. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-10-22T18:36:04.798Z

Sébastien Lemire turns to the Auditor General’s report on the CRA (Leitão: We are taking action and we have ordered them to take measures), Jean-Denis Garon raised more of the same (Leitão: We didn’t wait for her report to take action and went clear instructions to change their way of doing business).

Gabriel Hardy returned to the worries about inflation and blamed the deficit (Leitão: Inflation is in the target range and there are global factors at play; Lightbound: You voted against the child care benefit and the dental care plan), Jonathan Rowe read another script of same but in English (Hajdu: You guys voted against helping Canadians), Brad Vis worried about the industrial carbon price killing jobs (Joly: We are working to protect jobs and create them with the defence industrial strategy; Valdez: We introduced Buy Canadian strategies to strengthen domestic supply chains).

Round three saw questions on auto jobs (Joly: The job losses are because of tariffs and we are working with the industry on the EV mandate; The support to the sector was linked to the production of batteries, so they have not received the full amount; LeBlanc: We are negotiating to get a deal on the long-term safety of the auto sector), the report on the child care spaces (Hajdu: Provinces are not reporting in a consistent manner and we are working with them; This is provincial jurisdiction but we have funded them to help get costs down), the AG report on military recruitment (McGuinty: We are making changes to the recruitment process to get more people in the door faster), the report on military housing (McGuinty: We have been rebuilding and reinvesting with private sector partnerships), some incoherent yelling about balanced budgets (Lightbound: What’s embarrassing is your leader is undermining the rule of law in the country), the AG report on the CRA (Long: Since the launch of our plan, wait times have been cut in half), the Ring of Fire projects (Hajdu: We have been working with the province and First Nations in order to get this right), a meal service contract with Air Canada that brought in temporary foreign workers that now have no jobs (Diab: We are bringing down the numbers—which had nothing to do with the question).

Overall, it was a pretty lively day, and Poilievre was able to goad Carney into responding throughout the second round this week, whereas it was in the third round last week. Carney did not much acquit himself in these exchanges, however, because his “economics lesson” was pretty much reciting one additional bullet point that didn’t really disprove anything Poilievre said, but mostly just repeated his existing bullet points about the Canadian economy and the upcoming budget. There are answers to be given when it comes to those food prices—if he wants to complain beef prices are up, it’s because there was a drought on the prairies and herds needed to be culled so there is low supply. Coffee? Brazil, the largest coffee producer, is responding to U.S. tariffs by withholding product from the market in order to drive up prices among remaining suppliers in the hopes that those high prices will cause the Americans to rethink their tariffs on Brazil. None of this has anything to do with the size of the government’s deficit, and it would be tremendously helpful if someone could point out these facts on camera where they can be clipped (and demonstrate that Poilievre is a fool who does nothing but talk out of his ass), but they absolutely refuse to do so.

Otherwise, we did get singular mentions of other Auditor General’s reports, which was frankly insufficient for what some of those reports said, but a day late and a dollar short is better than nothing, one supposes. There were only a couple of instances where the Liberals brought up Poilievre’s denigration of the RCMP, which again, they could continue to go harder on but don’t. The rest of the back-patting continued unabated, as did Lina Diab continuing to be an absolute disaster in her responses, but apparently the Liberals also refuse to learn any lessons there.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Peter Fragiskatos for a dark blue suit with a light blueberry shirt, light blue tie and white pocket square, and to Anita Anand for a dark turquoise suit over a white v-necked top. Style citations go out to Stephanie Kusie for a faded orange long-sleeved, cowl-necked top with brown leather slacks, and to Jonathan Rowe for a cream-coloured jacket over a faded cranberry shirt and blue jeans with a black tie. Dishonourable mention goes out to Kelly DeRidder for a bright yellow boxy jacket with three-quarter sleeves off a black too and slacks.