The prime minister was indeed present for the penultimate Wednesday QP of the year, as were the other leaders. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and he once again led off with swipes at Marc Miller before taking his “fed up” line and applying it to the cost of food, and wondered how many people the prime minister would send to food banks. Mark Carney said that inflation is lower—at 2.2%—and salaries are on the rise, while joblessness is down and the economy is good. Poilievre took this and said that Carney is “happy” with grocery prices, and noted how much grocery prices rose up, blaming government spending. Carney said that Poilevre was ignoring that this was a “new” government that created the strongest economy the G7. (Erm… Really?) Poilievre switched to English to return to the Food Price report and the doubling of it over the past decade, blaming “inflationary deficits” and hidden taxes, and demanded to know how much groceries would increase next year. Carney wanted to the the “numbers straight” and praised economic growth, wages growing faster than inflation. Poilievre gave the usual mocking about a Canadians not having so good, and asked about the food price report. Carney praised the tax cuts that the conservatives voted against, and patted himself on the back for the budget. Poilievre then raised the Algoma steel layoffs and the fact that the loans didn’t come out with job guarantees. Carney intoned that these are difficult times, and quoted the CEO saying that things would have been worse without government support, and that they were able to save two-thirds of their jobs. Poilievre mocked about keeping the CEO happy, and said that he got paid to ship jobs south. Carney quoted Doug Ford about how much worse it would have been without supports.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and he worried about Steven Guilbeault’s departure, and wondered who would speak for Quebec’s language and culture. Carney pointed to their 44 Liberal MPs from the province, and promised to protect Quebec’s language and culture. Blanchet took swipes at Carney not living up to his promises on the environment, and Carney insisted he was living up to their climate goals, and that they were getting investment in clean energy, nuclear, and carbon capture. Blanchet mocked the notion that nuclear is clean energy, and demanded the government give up his oil agenda and return to the climate agenda to care about Quebec. Carney intoned that they were living up to the climate agenda that included $4 billion in the budget for Hydro Quebec.

Carney then took his leave, to more Conservative jeers.

Round two, and Poilievre got back up to complain about Carney’s exit, and got warned by the Speaker. Poilievre again referenced their exit, got warned again, before complaining about the subsidies to companies shipping jobs south (Champagne: We are going to Build Canada Strong™; When did he create any jobs other than his own?: Joly: You should ask your own MP about the jobs we saved in her riding and if Stellantis broke the contract, we will get the money back; I did read the contract and we are protecting workers; We don’t need any lessons from the Conservatives on standing with unionised workers, because they didn’t stand up for them in 2009), and Domtar layoffs (Hodgson: There is a trade war, and I was on the phone with the CEO to find new solutions for that mill).

Patrick Bonin complained that the “one Canadian economy” being promised was a “filthy, oil economy” (Dabrusin: I will be happy to talk about how we will Build Canada Strong™; Miller: Separatists in Quebec want to impose a loyalty test on Quebec artists, and do you want to as well?)

Pierre Paul-Hus took swipes at Marc Miller (Miller: No one thinks Poilievre would protect French, and the current member for Carleton will do more to protect French than the previous one; MacKinnon: I’m sure Quebeckers on your benches are fed up with having to vote against clean energy and constantly losing elections), and Melissa Lantsman returned to the Algoma loan (Hajdu: It’s clear you wouldn’t have lifted a hand to save the steel industry, and they voted against supports like extended EI), Ned Kuruc read the same script (Joly: We ensured that we saved the steel sector and they are transitioning to bug things).

Round three saw questions on the Stellantis contract (Sidhu: Here are a list of recent trade agreements; McGuinty: Here re jobs created by our defence investments), the redactions to that contract (Belanger: You are talking down Canada and Saskatchewan), forestry mill layoffs (Hodgson: We were on the phone with the CEO to retool the factory; McLean: Your plan is to get out of the way and do nothing while we invest; McKnight: We are standing with the industry), the tanker ban (Hodgson: Your premier is hopeful that we can work together; MacKinnon: Your premier put her signature to a solemn document), First Nations consultations (Battiste: Our government respects and acknowledges rights-holders and our ministers are meeting with them), the PBO report on Build Canada Homes (Robertson: The report assumes none of the current affordable housing programmes will continue but we are working with provinces to renew investment; You have been stalling the tax cut for first-time homebuyers; Lightbound: Ten years ago, housing organisations sighed with relief when the Harper era ended because they didn’t invest in housing), the Algoma loan with job cuts (Hajdu: Let me praise International Day for Persons with Disabilities). 

Calkins takes swipes at Guilbeault and makes reference to him in an orange jumpsuit. Guilbeault points to the suit he’s currently wearing. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-12-03T20:03:17.448Z

Overall, it was a loud and boisterous day, as Wednesdays so often are, and there was a whole uproar around Carney’s departure from the Chamber after the leaders’ round, and Poilievre trying to call him out for it, flagrantly breaking the rules around pointing to the presence or absence of a member, even after he was warned by the Speaker and had a question taken away. This in turn led to a back-and-forth on points of order after QP where the Liberals wanted the Speaker to sanction Poilievre for disrespecting him by continually referring to Carney’s departure. That also went over like a lead balloon, though Speaker Scapaleggia was extraordinarily lenient on that.

Otherwise, there were some far more pointed exchanges on the Stellantis deal and the Algoma loans, from the accusations of ministers not reading contracts (which they actually objected to!) to the retorts that Conservatives would have let all of those jobs go and sectors die in their desire to “get out of the way.” It was starting to cross lines into personal insults, and its’a reminder that there’s really only one sitting week left, and then these children get to go home because boy, are they getting cranky.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Julie Dabrusin for a navy suit with a white scoop-necked top, and to Brendan Hanley for a tailored navy three-piece suit with a white shirt and a blue tartan tie. Style citations go out to Fraser Tolmie for a green-tinged dark grey suit with a tartan waistcoat, light blue shirt and a dark yellow tie and pocket square, and to Sonia Sidhu for a moonstone green long-sleeved top under a black sleeveless jacket and slacks.