The PM was away in Abu Dhabi, while the other leaders and their fired-up caucuses were raring to go. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, where he claimed that the deficit in the budget is the highest outside of COVID (not true) and worried about people having to pay for it. Mélanie Joly supposed that Poilievre had not read the budget, or that he’s operating in bad faith in opposing the necessary investments. Poilievre then lamented that Carney is off on yet another trip, which have not resulted in any reduced tariffs. Joly retorted that the only one hiding under a rock is Poilievre when he has to face his focus, and that he apparently wants us to remain dependent on the American market. Poilievre switched to English to repeat his first question on the size of the deficit, and Patty Hajdu lambasted the Conservatives voting against the Canadians that they claim to care about. Poilievre repeated his same condemnation of Carney’s travels, and this time Maninder Sidhu said that Poilievre has been in the House for nearly twenty years with nothing to show for it, before he listed off new trade agreements they have been working on. Poilievre then pivoted to pipelines, gave some revisionist history about Northern Gateway and demanding a new pipeline to the Pacific. Tim Hodgson reads that there are productive discussions underway with premiers. Poilievre demanded the tanker ban on the BC Northwest coast be lifted, and MacKinnon taunted that the Liberals got a pipeline to tidewater built when the Conservatives couldn’t.
Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and raised cultural investments in the budget, and said that it could have been more if they still had the Digital Services Tax, so that web giants could pay for it. Steven Guilbeault corrected to a higher investment figure, which the Bloc voted against. Blanchet then worried about the lack of funding for private broadcasters, to which Guilbeault continued to list funding in the budget that the Bloc voted against, but didn’t really answer the question. Blanchet accused the government of not understanding the crisis for private broadcasters in Quebec, to which Guilbeault encouraged him to read the CBC/Radio-Canada annual plans for expanding in Quebec.
Round two, and Gérard Deltell railed about the “credit card” budget (Provost: I’m surprised to hear him rail about the budget, which I want to address as a woman; Gainey: Hooray for the measures in the budget), Tim Uppal read the English version of the same script (Long: It’s time for you to get real about the budget and support it), Costas Menegakis read another script of the same (Church: Let me talk about seniors in my riding benefitting from this budget; Here is how youth will benefit from the budget), and Richard Martel returned to the French version of the script (Gull-Masty: The budget befits Indigenous children, and your calling this a credit card is just spending on Canadians).
A federal deficit IS NOT A CREDIT CARD. FFSMake it stop! #QP
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-11-19T19:44:35.438Z
Blanchet got back up to take shots at the Quebec Liberal leader (Joly: I’m glad you want to speak about the PQ idea about a Quebec that would weaken purchasing power and give us an even weaker sovereignty; These are fictional politics, but we have more Quebec MPs than you do).
Melissa Lantsman recited a script about Carney’s travels while not getting tariff relief (MacKinnon: Why is it that when your leader leaves this city, his poll numbers go down?; Turnbull: We have the best position in the G7), Mark Strahl read another script of the same (Solomon: Instead of talking down the economy, support us to build the country up!), and Ted Falk read another script of the same (Chartrand: Hooray the budget).
Evan Solomon: Instead of talking down the economy, support us to build the country up!Remember when people pretended he had credibility! #QP
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-11-19T19:54:06.951Z
Round three saw questions on the PM’s travel Lightbound: If we had to choose between our leader broadening trade relationships and your leader going on podcasts, it’s an easy decision; Joly: You should spend more time with people in various sectors who are asking us to open up new markets), infant formula prices (Hajdu: That same parent also said she can’t wait for the Canada Child Benefit to arrive, and you voted against that; The Benefit is pegged to inflation, and we have money for agriculture and innovation which you voted against; This is fake outrage), the non-existent “fuel tax” (Hajdu: You voted against every measure to help parents), “socialist programmes” causing food price inflation (Hajdu: I’m proud to be a Liberal because we do something to help people), the non-existent “food packaging tax” (Belanger: We spent the past ten years cleaning up Harper’s messes), the industrial carbon price (Valdez: Slogans about the budget), extortion (Sahota: We need deterrence, so you should vote for lawful access; MacKinnon: Support C-2; Anandasangaree: Same answer), the gun buyback (Thompson: You voted against the budget to support people in our provinces), choices in the budget to cut the luxury taxes (Joly: You should talk to the head of Unifor, who represents the Bombardier workers in Montreal, and when we cut that tax, they created 600 new jobs).
Do the Conservatives want price controls on baby formula? What action are they demanding? #QP
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-11-19T20:00:54.203Z
Rachael Thomas is now screaming about “socialist programmes” which she is blaming food price inflation on. Does the government correct this bullshit? Of course not. #QP
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-11-19T20:04:59.720Z
The Liberals’ claims they need lawful access to fight extortion is bullshit. I talked to a retired judge this morning who signed off on plenty of wiretap warrants for terrorism in her day. She told me there are no delays so long as police have their evidence in order. #QP
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-11-19T20:13:16.405Z
Overall, things were on course for another wholly mind-numbingly repetitive day until we got to the third round when the overwrought questions about baby formula and food price inflation stirred things up, particularly when Patty Hajdu declared it to be “fake outrage.” The Conservatives’ position continues to be incoherent, because “do something” about the price of baby formula essentially means price controls, as opposed to “repeal the industrial carbon price,” which has zero application to food prices overall. But does the government actually respond with the facts in question or do something that would show that the Conservatives’ points are bullshit? Of course not. But the fact that they give answers that look divorced from the questions asked make them look out of touch, and like they don’t care, which is not what they want.
Otherwise, there were two other points. The first is that Blanchet’s second round was bizarre, where he was focused on Pablo Rodriguez, who is now the Quebec Liberal leader and is not in Parliament. Why this question was allowed is beyond me. The other point is that the government needs to stop putting up Buckley Belanger to answer questions from Conservatives from Saskatchewan. He doesn’t actually say anything of substance, but just gives some vaguely insulting nonsense, and it makes everyone look bad. Sure, if he gave some self-deprecating wit, that might be a different story, but he doesn’t, and it’s not funny, it’s not cure, it’s not clever, and it just demeans the whole exercise.
Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Laila Goodridge for a blue jacket over a white top and blue skirt, and to Peter Fragiskatos for a dark grey tailored three-piece suit over a pale pink shirt with a matching pocket square and a dark pink paisley tie. Style citations go out to Burton Bailey for a pale brown wool-tweed jacket over an off-white shirt, dark grey slacks and a light brown tie, and to Tamara Jansen for a blue and pink floral print jacket overflowed a black top and slacks.