After a week away, they PM was back in the Chamber for QP, and so were most of the other leaders. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, declaring that Mark Carney hasn’t been able to reduce a single tariff in his 28 trips abroad, but he did manage to find gains for Brookfield, including a deal that was signed days after his meeting with Trump, and he also noted that the European Space Agency is on a Brookfield-owned campus, and wondered why every time he goes abroad, Canadians get poorer and Brookfield gets richer. Carney dismissed this, saying that Poilievre should check his figures as Indonesia reduced their tariffs on Canadian goods, and that they got a $70 billion commitment of investment from the UAE. Poilievre then switched to English to declare how much he cares for workers after Carney made his “Who cares?” aside at the G20. Carney noted that since he became PM, Canada has secured the lowest tariff rate in the world, and that there are sectors for whom they are under pressure, and the he does care and they are enacting further supports. Poilievre gave another “who cares?” exhortation, and Carney took a swipe at Poilievre not getting elected before admitting that he made a poor choice of words on a serious issue, and rounded off with some back-patting about his trade deals. Poilievre insisted that Carney has made nothing but mistakes on trade, and raised that Stephen Harper got a softwood deal when he came into office, before going on another paean about how much the cares. Carney insisted that they care about Canadians, which is why they have a budget to “catalyze” investments, while the Conservatives voted against Canada’s future. Poilievre returned his first question on Carney not getting any wins on tariffs and the supposed gains for Brookfield. Carney repeated out that Indonesia is reducing its tariffs by 95 percent, that we have the best deal with the Americans, and the UAE wants to invest $70 billion in Canada. Poilievre again insisted this was about Brookfield, before pivoting to the MOU with Alberta and demanded to know what date construction would begin on a new pipeline. Carney said that this was about necessary conditions, not sufficient conditions, and that the government of BC and the First Nations need to agree.
Christine Normandin rose for the Bloc and immediately accused the Liberals of cheating, and said that Chrétien sped up citizenships to help sway the Quebec in 1995, and wondered if they would cheat again in a new referendum. Carney pointed out that they have more Liberals in their caucus than the Bloc, and they respect Quebeckers. Normandin repeated her accusations, and again demanded a fair fight in a future referendum. Carney said the Bloc dwell in the past while he is turned to the future. Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe took over to make the same accusations, and Carney gave the same bland assurances around building for the future.
Round two, and Poilievre got back up to cite the constitution over the jurisdiction of interprovincial pipelines (MacKinnon: Under the Conservatives, no oil went to tidewater; In interprovincial resource projects, the federal government understands the obligations to provinces and First Nations; We have dozens of major projects under construction and under consideration, while you pretend that you can override rights; You still haven’t answered about the statements made by your members; Hodgson: We do understand that the jurisdiction rests with the federal government but we expect a proponent work with provinces and First Nations; You don’t understand how to get a pipeline built and the premier of Alberta does), and accused Carney of tax evasion (Hajdu: Here are unions that praised our budget).
Poilievre is trying to goad Carney into debating the jurisdiction over pipelines, and calling him “pathetic” for not doing so. #QP
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-11-25T19:34:17.304Z
Carney waves over his shoulder to the opposition as he leaves the Chamber, and the Conservatives howled. #QP
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-11-25T19:42:14.659Z
Patrick Bonin accused the government of giving up on fighting climate change (Dabrusin: We are committed to fighting climate change, and we can talk about major clean energy projects; Champagne: We created a generational budget to build clean energy projects around the country).
Pierre Paul-Hus complained about powers to give permanent residency in the border bill (Diab: We will reduce temporary immigration) and some accusations about Carney’s ethics review (MacKinnon: You keep throwing around accusations with no shred of truth), Jacob Mantle returned to yesterday’s “who cares?” script (LeBlanc: We won’t sign any deal, only a good deal, and we will support sectors in the meantime), Eric Melillo decided the same script (Hodgson: We care about the forestry sector which is why we announced $1.2 billion in supports with more to come), and Michael Kram also read the same script (LeBlanc: You keep repeating things that aren’t true).
Round three saw questions on food price inflation (Hajdu: Let’s talk about something other than imaginary taxes, like our supports for Canadians, and the “Food Professor” admits climate change is the biggest driver; Long: If you cared about help Canadians, you wouldn’t have voted against automatic benefits for more Canadians; Chatel: The CEO of Costco talked about good versus bad crop years, not government policies; Gainey: Baby formula is mostly imported and we need to move to self-reliance, but the Canada Child Benefit can help parents), the National Research Council buying patio furniture (Bardeesy: We expect all government organisations to follow procurement practices), “hidden taxes” (Chatel: We are looking for solutions to bring down food prices, but real solutions are based on real facts; Hajdu: You should support things that help Canadians rather than focusing on imaginary taxes; Church: You could have voted for the tax cut in the budget), the tanker ban (Hodgson: We will Build Canada Strong™), Brookfield connections (Solomon: Stop the conspiracy theories and say yes to Canada; Sidhu: Hooray the deals we are making with other countries; there is a through ethics regime the PM follows), WestJet’s arbitrary weight restrictions that prevent people with motorised wheelchairs from flying (MacKinnon: We have an ongoing dialogue with airlines, and we want them to be accessible), and Danielle Smith’s attack on public healthcare by enforcing the Canada Health Act (Michel: We will always protect the healthcare system which is why we are investing in the system).
Overall, it was a loud and raucous day, particularly as Poilievre was keen to goad Carney into a confrontation. Yes, Carney admitted his poor choice of words on the “Who cares?” dismissal—but not until his third response—which didn’t stop Poilievre from harvesting more clips about just how much he claims to care about all of those workers. Poilievre then tried to goad Carney into a confrontation on pipeline politics for the first half of the second round, calling him “pathetic” for not answering, which didn’t work, and Carney left the Chamber after Poilievre finished up his ongoing second go-around. It also bears noting that Poilievre has also tried to goad Carney into holding a debate with him in the Chamber for a take-note debate on softwood lumber, so he clearly thinks that he can get somewhere with this “Debate me, bro!” attitude (even though these events are not actual debates).
Meanwhile, I would say that I was surprised that the Bloc declaring that the Liberals “always cheat” was not ruled to be unparliamentary, because it seems like something like that would be. Nevertheless, the Bloc trying to set up a future referendum seems somewhat counterproductive. I would also say that it was good that Anna Gainey actually had a better partial answer on the baby formula question, and pointed out the shortages because we don’t have domestic sources in Canada and we need to move to self-reliance…which is good, but they need more. They need to talk about what efforts they are doing in order to ensure that self-reliance, which would be an actual answer and a demonstration that the government is doing something other than pat themselves on the back for something Justin Trudeau did a decade ago.
Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Rechie Valdez for a dark plum jacket over a navy top and black slacks, and to Gabriel Hardy for a tailor navy suit over a dark blue shirt with a spotted pattern and a maroon tie. Style citations go out to Randy Hoback for a grey-brown jacket over a white shirt and blue jeans with no tie, and to Rhonda Kirkland for a faded pink and pastel three-quarter sleeve top over black slacks. Dishonourable mention goes out to Anna Roberts for a mustard yellow sweater over a black v-necked top and matching slacks.