The PM was jetting off to Singapore while the fallout from Trump’s latest tantrum continued to reverberate at home. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, where he raised Food Banks Canada’s latest report, and the dire numbers therein about food bank usage, to which he attributed culpability on the federal government’s “inflationary prices,” and asked how many more meals people would miss because of the government’s upcoming budget. Steve MacKinnon pointed out that the report pointed to four main issues to overcome food insecurity, and that they point to things like disability support, affordable housing, and school food programmes, all of which the Conservatives voted against. Poilievre paraphrased the report saying how the acceleration of food insecurity has taken place, and accused the government’s school food programme of only “feeding bureaucracy.” Anna Gainey responded that the government was investing in Canadian families to help them get ahead, and raised the school food programme, as well as dental care, child care, and the Canada Child Benefit. Poilievre switched to English to repeat his first question on the report on food insecurity, and again this time, tied it to Carney’s speech on “sacrifice.” MacKinnon reiterated that Poilievre didn’t read the report, which praised their programmes like the school food programme. Poilievre dismissed this as not feeding anything but bureaucracy, and again, Gainey quoted from the report which called on the government to make the school food programme permanent with legislation, which is what they plan to do, and the Conservatives opposed. Poilievre hammered away at number of people at food banks and continued to blame the “costly” government, and this time Gregor Robertson got up to praise their plans to build me homes. Poilievre kept at those same statistics, and Patty Hajdu said that she took this as support for their budget with the school food programme and their recently announced tax credit for personal support workers.
Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and raised the government’s concerns that they don’t have the votes to pass the budget, and blamed the government for not working with any opposition party. MacKinnon retorted that the government is working hard, and they have more Quebec MPs than the Bloc does. Normandin said the budget doesn’t meet Quebeckers’ needs and listed their demands, and this time, Steven Guilbeault said the Bloc are incoherent because they made demands and still say they will vote against it. Denis Garon took over to complain that the government didn’t do adequate consultations in Quebec ahead of the budget, and MacKinnon reiterated that they are building, and dared the Bloc to vote against it.
Round two, and Melissa Lantsman read the same script for food insecurity (McLean: We have done more to help affordability like school food and dental care; Gainey: The report also raises the things we are doing that you are voting against), Shelby Kramp-Neuman read another script of the same (Hajdu: If you read the report, they call for us to keep doing what we’re doing; Robertson: You need to connect the dots between food prices and housing prices and we are delivering results), Richard Brandon read the same script (Long: You voted against every affordability measure we put forward), Luc Berthold read the French/Quebec version of the same script (Lightbound: You voted against the programmes helping people; Gainey: Same answer).
Mario Simard worried about the latest tantrum tariffs and demanded a rescue plan for industry (LeBlanc: We are open to resuming trade talks, but we need to be careful because nothing has been made official; Joly: We are supporting industry).
Garnett Genuis read the another script on the food banks report with added agitation (McLean: The report recommends our programming; MacKinnon: You talk about imaginary taxes, you talk about imaginary programmes but he voted against very real programmes, and what is inflationary spending when it come to spending on Canadians), Jasraj Hallan sped through a more insulting version of the same script (Hajdu: The PM said it was time to bet big on Canadians, while you refuse to; We believing in empowering Canadians through jobs as well as through programmes), and Corey Torchor read the same script with more baritone (Belanger: Some rambling about Saskatchewan).
Round three saw yet more questions on the food banks report (Gainey: The report calls on us to keep up our programmes; Turnbull: You opposed the school food programme and called it “garbage”; McLean: Conservatives wanted to raise the retirement age and cut programmes for seniors; Hajdu: Today we announced tax breaks for personal support workers in the budget; We announced more money for skilled trades training, and we need more; Lightbound: Our measures help Canadians; Long: We are focused on what we can control which means generation investments in the budget; Thompson: School food programmes are important to our province because it matters). There were also questions on a baby abandoned in a bus shelter who died, and blamed the government for it (Lightbound: We send our sympathies; Gainey: We have supports for families), the story of the CRA sending an unverified $4 million refund (Long: The CRA takes enforcement action when abuse is identified, but we can’t comment on this case), Albertans being charged for vaccinations (Michel: We believe in vaccines and are working with the provinces to increase rates).
Cries of “shame!” and “politicisation!” as Eric Lefebvre tris to blame the death of a baby abandoned at a bus shelter on the government. #QP
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-10-27T18:59:19.053Z
Overall, it was an incredibly repetitive day, where the Conservatives only had one line of questions (with the exception of Eric Lefebvre and his question about the baby who died after being abandoned, bit it was somewhat wedged into the same topic). And once again, this was just about getting clips, but more than anything, it was an example of the Conservatives merely reading the headline numbers and slotting them into their existing talking points about “inflationary deficits,” or imaginary “hidden taxes,” and capping them off with a fresh attack line of “How many more meals people would miss because of the government’s upcoming budget?” When the government would read out portions of the report that praised the federal programmes, they had a prepared retort line of “If these programmes actually worked, there wouldn’t be 700,000 children in line at the food banks,” which they used time and again. Of course, if they bothered to read the report, and previous ones, they would have also seen that the majority of the culpability lies at the feet of provincial governments, for whom the social safety net is largely their responsibility, plus the fact that rent controls are also a provincial responsibility, and that has also been one of the culprits this report and its predecessors have identified. But that doesn’t make good clips for Poilievre, and if the government points it out, they’re “blame-shifting,” so again, the provinces don’t face any responsibility.
Otherwise, I was shocked that there weren’t more questions on the latest tantrum tariffs, save the one question from the Bloc, which was mostly couched in support for industry. Considering that Poilievre continues to try to blame this on Carney and the government, I was a bit surprised that the day wasn’t spent loudly denouncing Carney for this latest flare-up, but apparently they decided that being disingenuous about the Food Banks report was a better sell for their clip-gathering and rage-farming. Because that’s all this is anymore.
Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Jill McKnight for a grey and black houndstooth jacket over a black top and slacks, and to David Myles for a tailored dark grey suit with a crisp white shirt and a dark blue tie. Style citations go out to Philip Earle for a light lavender suit with a white shirt and a red striped tie, and to Madeleine Chenette for a black dress with gold florals under a black jacket.