The PM was away again today, this time having spent the morning at the Darlington nuclear plant, and before his planned appearance at the Blue Jays’ practice (because priorities). Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and said that Mark Carney’s speech last night was “depressing,” and that he was demanding young people make sacrifices, when they have already been making sacrifices and have nothing left. Joël Lightbound said that young people sacrificed a  pessimistic, negative vision of Canada from Poilievre and chose a serious leader with an ambitious government. Poilievre said that Lightbound didn’t listen to the speech, and he repeated the supposed sacrifices that these young people have made, including falsely claiming that these are the worst job numbers in 30 years, before demanding an “affordable budget.” Lightbound said that the gulf between Poilievre and Carney gets wider and wider, and he rhymed off the talking points about the “transformational budget” and “spending less to invest more.” Poilievre switched to English to repeat his lament for the “depressing speech” and the sacrifices being demanded. John Zerucelli stood up to proclaim that he was proud to present red seals to a three young tradespeople before he praised the government’s plans. Poilievre again falsely claimed that the jobless rate was at a thirty-year high outside of COVID, and that young people need jobs and housing. Zerucelli proclaimed how much they were going go build. Poilievre again lamented that nobody had apparently watched Carney’s “miserable” speech and that youth would have to sacrifice more when they have already sacrificed enough, and wanted his own plan put into the budget. Steve MacKinnon got up to quip that the only person who is miserable when the prime minister speaks is Poilievre, before he gave a soaring paean about the announcement this morning and that the future was bright for youth. Poilievre again pitched his own plan to be put into the budget, and again, MacKinnon gave another soaring speech about the hope they are giving youth.

Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and decried the government’s dismissing of the Bloc’s demands as “political games.” Steven Guilbeault said that Blanchet was changing his plans as often as he changes his shirts, and his tone of cooperation has given way to panning the budget before reading it. Normandin panned Carney’s empty consultations, and Guilbeault listed all of the people who met with the Bloc leader. Yves Perron again decried the “political games” line and insisted that the Bloc’s demands represent the needs of Quebeckers. As he always does in the face of such rhetoric, MacKinnon reminded the Bloc that they have fewer seats that the Liberals do in the province.

Round two, and Garnett Genuis repeated the lines about “record” unemployment—it is nowhere near a record—and demand the government adopt their plan (Long: People don’t like your leader spinning conspiracy theories; We are going to build at a scale not seen since the Second World War), Vincent Ho read another script of the same (Hajdu: Boy that speech really freaked out the Conservatives), and Sandra Cobena, Grant Jackson and Gabriel Hardy read more of the same (Hajdu: Let me tell you about a Young person in my riding; Sidhu: We will double non-US exports over the next decade; Lightbound: While your leader is on YouTube spreading conspiracy theories, I choose a PM who is building Canada; We will free the Canadian economy by cutting taxes and building new home).

Patrick Bonin decried the decision to build more nuclear power plants rather than buying clean energy from Quebec (Dabrusin: We are building a country for the future with clean energy), and that nuclear waste would likely be stored at Chalk River on the banks of the Ottawa River (Dabrusin: We should be proud of how much clean energy have in this country).

Aaron Gunn returned to the same script about the speech (van Koeverden: Canadians use hope and hard work to country while your leader didn’t learn any lessons from his defeat; Blois: You always vote against the interests of young Canadians), Jacob Mantle read more of the same scripts (Sidhu: We are doubling non-U.S. exports and this matters; Church: We believe that youth are the drivers of future growth so we are giving them what they need to succeed), and Frank Caputo raised that there are 32,000 foreign nationals awaiting removals (Anandasangaree: We have the highest level of removals in a decade).

Round three saw questions on food prices while blaming deficits (Thompson: Newfoundland and Labrador was the first province to sign onto the school food programme while you voted against it; Hajdu: Those imaginary taxes don’t show up on receipts because they’re not there), the various auto plant closure (Leitão: The Canadian auto sector is crucial and we want it to stay afloat, and we are doing everything we can to support the workers; The Paccar decision is incomprehensible; Zerucelli: The U.S. has changed their trading relationship with the world; LeBlanc: Canadians chose a government ready to defend our industries and negotiate with Trump), remarks about a “strategic partnership” with China (Anand: Public safety and security of Canadians is top of mind but the way we become the strongest economy in the G7 is to diversify our supply chains), why the foreign interference registry is not up and running (Anandasangaree: I look forward to bringing the commissioner’s name to the other parties and it will be up and running by the end of the year), spending on the CRA (Long: We accept the Auditor General’s report—but let me quibble with her methodology; We have a 100-day plan), Indigenous artefacts being stolen from a collection (Alty: We are taking this seriously), “hidden taxes” (MacKinnon: Our finances are the best in the G7), something incoherent about both cuts to WAGE and unpaid work (Ménard: we have a feminist vision because when the economy improves, status of women improves), and nuclear proliferation treaties (Anand: We believe in a world without nuclear weapons and we share a responsibility to work against these threats).

Bullshit claims in #QP so far today include the falsehood that unemployment is at a thirty-year high, and that the a school food programme hasn’t fed a single child.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-10-23T18:53:21.822Z

How does cutting the CRA’s budget help them answer more calls and more accurately? #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-10-23T19:09:35.907Z

Overall, it was a bit of a strange day, from Poilievre delivering the most uncharitable reading of Carney’s speech possible (which just happened to dovetail into his existing slogans), to the soaring rhetoric that Steve MacKinnon and a few others tried to give in response, talking about the most optimistic version of their plans. And there are legitimate questions to be had about Carney’s speech and his talk about “sacrifices,” because Carney is vague on what those are going to be, but the signs are all pointing to the fact that it will be women and minorities who face the brunt of these sacrifices when it comes to their programming, and that they will need to satisfy themselves with a few crumbs while CEOs and millionaires are not asked to sacrifice more. But this is a narrative that even Poilievre isn’t interested in pursuing, because he has a particular policy agenda that he needs to fit everything into. 

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Christine Normandin for a grey-green jacket over a black scoop-necked dress, and to David Myles for a tailored dark grey suit over a crisp white shirt and a dark purple tie. Style citations go out to Jim Bélanger for a brown-grey microfibre jacket over a light grey shirt, black slacks, and a dark grey tie, and to Julie Dabrusin for a white ruffled shirt with florals under a purple jacket and black slacks. Dishonourable mention goes out to Annie Koutrakis for a bright yellow jacket over a black top and slacks.