The PM was jetting from Singapore to Busan, South Korea, while things rolled along back home. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and he returned to the Food Banks Canada report, blaming “inflationary” deficits for food insecurity, and demanded a budget to make life affordable. Steve MacKinnon said that they would do that, and wanted the Conservatives’ support for it. Poilievre said that past budgets “ballooned” the deficit and again drmwndrd an affordability budget. MacKinnon noted that Food Banks Canada supported their measures in the budget, and hoped that the Conservatives weren’t aiming for a Christmas election. Poilievre switched to English to repeat the same question with added embellishment, and this time Patty Hajdu got up to read a quote from the CEO of Food Banks Canada in support of their programmes. Poilievre dismissed this as saying that if it were true, the demand would not travel increased, and Hajdu responded with incredulity that Poilievre dismissed the CEO of Food Banks Canada as not knowing what she is talking about. Poilievre doubled down on an anecdote from the report, and Anna Gainey quoted again from the report that praised federal supports and noted that the Conservatives voted against them. Poilievre again insisted that this couldn’t be true, and he again demanded an “affordable budget.” Hajdu retorted that either Poilievre wants a Christmas election, or he wants to inter what is in the report.
Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and he worried about the trade war, and demanded the government restore “decent relations” with the U.S. (How?!) Dominic LeBlanc gave some bland assurances of work with his counterparts in the U.S., before reciting the line about building up the Canadian economy. Blanchet wondered what they should tell investors given the uncertainty, and LeBlanc said that the government is there to support them and to invest. Blanchet was incredulous at the notion that these businesses need to wait, and LeBlanc said that the government has cooperated with provinces and industry leaders about what more can be done to support workers and industries.
Round two, and Poilievre got back up, and in French, falsely claimed that Carney promised a deal by July and that he was now blaming Doug Ford for the ad, and wondered if they had seen it first. LeBlanc said that they know full well that the government won’t take any deal, but only one in our interests. Poilievre repeated the false claim in English, and LeBlanc repeated the same response. Poilievre tried again two more times to ask if anyone in PMO had seen the and, and LeBlanc kept talking around it, taking shots at Poilievre’s lack of seriousness along the way. Poilievre demanded honesty, which got howls from the government benches, and demanded a yes or no answer. LeBlanc responded by saying he can see the frustration that Poilievre must be feeling, and that Canadians could see he wasn’t up to the task in the election, and then they went around for another round of the same. Poilievre rattled off false economic statistics and again falsely claimed Carney was blaming an ad for the lack of a deal, and tried to pin this on Carney’s incompetence. LeBlanc said that just because the leader of the opposition keeps asserting the same fake premise, it doesn’t make it real.
Poilievre sure is keen to blame Carney for Trump’s latest tantrum. #QP
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-10-28T18:33:48.601Z
The House of Commons is very nearly debating whether the federal government has jurisdiction over television ads.
— Aaron Wherry (@aaronwherry.bsky.social) 2025-10-28T18:36:24.404Z
Jean-Denis Garon said that the government heard to zero pre-budget consultations and were resorting to blackmail to pass the budget (MacKinnon: We are in a minority parliament and which opposition party wants to send Canadians back to the polls at Christmas?; There is no slapping happening, and we have met with your MPs about the budget, and you’ve had your say).
Pierre-Paul Hus worried more about food insecurity (Guilbeault: Did you even read the report, because here are some quotes; Just what is inflationary spending? Is it pensions? Healthcare? Major projects?), Raquel Dancho repeated the same anecdote from the report (Gainey: You should listen to front-line groups who praise programmes like school food; Robertson: Rents and mortgages are coming down ); and Fraser Tolmie read another script of the same (Zerucelli: You voted against measures that help people),
The government is led by a former central banker, but they continue to let lies about inflation fester. #QP
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-10-28T18:48:38.741Z
Round three saw questions on softwood lumber tariffs (Hodgson: I understand the issue, and we are working hard to resolve this; This is why we have launched supports for sector; We are working at every level to resolve this; Bardeesy: Softwood is a key part of our future so we are supporting the sector; Guilbeault: We are working with the sector), trolling for support for a bill on domestic violence (Sahota: We have a bill in the House that will address femicide and are making bail harder to get, and will have a gender-based violence bill on the way; I’d love to work with you to address this issue; Provost: We need an integrated, wide-ranging approach to dealing with violence against women), canola tariffs (Chatel: China’s tariffs are unjustified and the PM and the trade minster are in Asia right now; Anand: I was in the Indo-Pacific ten days ago and I raised this with Chinese and Indian counterparts), housing subsidies and national vacancy controls (Robertson: We are focused on non-market rental housing), and food prices in Nunavut (Alty: We are delivering food security for the North).
Shorter Conservatives: Just capitulate to China for canola. What could go wrong? #QP
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-10-28T19:07:01.687Z
Overall, it was a bit of an odd day that was probably best described by what kinds of clips the Conservatives were trying to harvest. First it was more of the Food Banks Canada report clips, but when presented with actual quotes from the report or the CEO, they dismissed them as not being credible, so that was odd to say the least, but also very telling in the way that they were very selectively using cherry-picked bits from the report to advance their narrative. And there there was Poilievre dominating the second round to try and get some kind of clip about the Reagan ads, stacking false premise after false premise to construct it, and when Dominic LeBlanc wouldn’t give them a simple yes or no, they cried “COVER UP!” over Twitter, because of course they did. And finally, it was the harvest for softwood lumber and canola clips, because they apparently decided they need more of those for their socials.
Meanwhile, the Conservatives had earlier in the day held a press scrum to tout a new private member’s bill on domestic violence, which Frank Caputo tried to push toward the end of QP. Unfortunately for him, in his attempt to make himself look like a hard-ass, he yelled at Ruby Sahota that she was wearing a button and not one of the purple ribbons that they were passing around about domestic violence, only for Sahota to point out that her button was about support for the RCMP, so Caputo once again came out looking like an ass and not a hard-ass. But this is the kind of thing that happens when you spend all of your time performing and not actually trying to do anything of substance (and rest assured, that bill is pure performance at the expense of the families of victims).
Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Tim Hodgson for a navy suit with a crisp white shirt, matching pocket square, and bright purple tie, and to Natalie Provost for a black wrap top under a tailor navy jacket and skirt. Style citations go out to Rebecca Alty for a brown button-up top with a white and pink floral pattern under a navy blue suit, and to Ernie Klassen for a khaki jacket with thick grey vertical stripes over a white shirt and dark grey tie. Dishonourable mention goes out to Anna Roberts for a mustard yellow jacket over a black top with a white collar and black slacks.