The PM was apparently in town but had nothing on his schedule, and was not at QP. Pierre Poilievre was, however, and he led off in French, worrying about Canadians not able to afford nutritious food after the Food Price Report said that families can expect to spend an additional $995 a year on groceries this year, and demanded the government abolish the “taxes” and “inflationary spending” driving those prices. (That is not what is causing the prices to rise). Julie Dabrusin rose to say that the industrial carbon price doesn’t apply to farms, and that the Food Price Report said that climate change is the biggest driver of food prices, and if the Conservatives were ready to fight climate change. Poilievre cited the report to point out that the average weekly grocery bill for a family of four doubled over the past ten years, and again blamed government spending and “taxes.” Steve MacKinnon dismissed the talk of these imaginary taxes, and that Poilievre systematically votes against things that help people in need. Poilievre switched to English to repeat his first question, and took aim at “inflationary taxes on food.” Patty Hajdu got up and pointed out that he didn’t read the report, and that the report highlights that the highest drivers of costs are related to climate changes, such as drought in Western Canada, and that is why the governments were helping Canadians with things like child care. Poilievre declared that Carney declared that the was to be judged on the prices of food, and that he is now making excuses for food prices doubling over the past year thanks to “Liberal taxes.” Hajdu again dismissed the menace of “hidden taxes” and that’s why they ensure that there is more money in people’s pockets, and then jabbed that the Conservatives apparently don’t understand market forces, before praising the renewed child care agreements with provinces. Poilievre insisted that those programmes have only made child poverty worse, and this time Dabrusin praised the Canada Child Benefit before taking her own turn chiding the imaginary taxes. Poilievre enumerated those supposed “hidden taxes” and demanded the government scrap them. Hajdu pointed out that Poilievre didn’t obviously read the report, and cited its passages on inflation.

Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and accused the government of bowing to religious lobbies as they have slowed down progress on the hate crime bill. Patricia Lattanzio said that the work on the bill was progressing. Normandin again accused the government of being cowardly, and Marc Miller got up to ask if the Bloc, like their provincial counterparts, think that artists need to swear loyalty to the Quebec nation. Rhéal Fortin got up to take his own turn to make the same accusation of government, and this time Joël Lightbound said that the Bloc are trying to distract, and said that the government is investing in culture not to demand the fealty of artists.

Round two, and John Barlow read today’s script on the food price report (Long: We’ve done more for affordable in six months that the opposition has in years; Let’s talk about automatic tax filing to get people benefits they need) Scot Davidson read the script with more alacrity (van Koeverden: There are no taxes on food, the biggest driver of prices is climate change which you don’t want to admit, and the industrial carbon price has a zero percent effect on food). Carol Anstey read the script with big Karen energy (Thompson: Instead of repeating the same canned lines, think about the help you voted against), and Anna Roberts shouted her script (McLean: Your own platform had nothing for food affordability and you voted against help for Canadians).

Are the Conservatives demanding the government turn food into a command-and-control economy? Are they demanding wage and price controls? What exactly should the government do about food prices? #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-12-04T19:37:43.646Z

Mario Simard demanded the government give Quebec everything they want if they want to avoid another referendum (MacKinnon: People in your riding are not worried about another referendum, they have other concerns that we are helping them with), and Martin Champoux offered more demands for the federal government to do (Lightbound: You guys didn’t propose a single thing in the election, and are voting against investments in Quebec).

Luc Berthold read the French version of today’s script (MacKinnon: No one can explain what “inflationary spending” is; I can explain to you what important spending is), Eric Lefebvre gave the same (Lightbound: There thousands of people in your riding are getting dental care for the first time in years), and Sandra Cobena returned to the English version of the script (Zerucelli: Your voting record betrays your concern for struggling families; We will stand by our record of putting money in the pockets of Canadians).

Round three saw yet more questions on the food price report (Joly: Quebeckers voted in 44 Liberal MPs to grow the economy and the plan is working; You are just cherry-picking figures; Church: Hooray for our supports; Seniors praise our programmes like dental care; Chartrand: People in your province support our budget and you should too; MacKinnon: There you have it—“handouts,” “dependence,” and he should talk to more single mothers). There were also questions on the Stellantis contract (Joly: Stellantis broke the deal, so we will make sure we get our money back; Your government gave money to the auto sector with no job guarantees), ending virtual citizenship ceremonies (Diab: We have multiple layers; Virtual ceremonies came in during the pandemic and we are always looking for new ways to do things), the cancellation of a committee meeting (Maloney: I just became chair two days ago and things were going poorly, so I gave members time to regroup), housing needs in Nunavut (Chartrand: We are dedicated $2.3 billion and partnering to fast-track 700 new homes, and this is just the beginning), and the betrayal in the MOU around “enhanced oil recovery” (Dabrusin: The MOU provides many opportunities to move forward on industrial carbon pricing). 

It’s the same script over and over and over and over again… #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-12-04T19:56:29.367Z

Diab is a disaster in #QP. Just an utter gong show every single day.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-12-04T20:08:20.998Z

Overall, things went about as expected as Poileivre was hinting about the release of this report yesterday, and lo, today, it was the focus of nearly every question of the day. It was good to see the government finally push back more, and to actually spell to things like food prices are increasing because of climate change—and sticking it to the Conservatives that they are doing everything they can to avoid the fight against it—but it’s way too little and too late given that they should have been saying this months ago, along with completely debunking the notion of these “hidden taxes.” I mean, it’s great that we’re finally getting this pushback, but the fact that it’s coming the week before the Xmas break is just disappointing.

Otherwise, we got an actual rare committee question today, where a question was asked of the committee chair, and lo, the chair answered. In this case, it was about a cancelled meeting of the justice committee, and I had not realized that they have a new chair, and that he did so to cool down a situation because there has been a bunch of nonsense happening, including filibusters. It’s rare that we get actual committee questions (and not carefully choreographed bullshit questions to vice-chairs that are friendly in order to slam the government). 

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Gérard Deltell for a dark grey three-piece suit with a crisp white shirt and a darker grey paisley tie, and to Giovanna Mingarelli for a navy jacket and skirt with a white collared top. Style citations go out to Jenna Sudds for a black, grey and cream tartan dress with wizard sleeves, and Eric Lefebvre for a light blue suit with a tight windowpane pattern over a white shirt and a dark yellow tie. Dishonourable mention goes out to Buckley Belanger for a black suit with a white shirt and a yellow tie with grey stripes.