It was an unusual Friday-on-a-Thursday QP, with the usual Friday start time, thanks to the Conservatives having their convention this weekend, and with the PM meeting with the premieres and Poilievre having already left for Calgary, it was going to be the b-team in play. That left it up to John Brassard to led off and accuse the prime minister of “seducing” Canadians with their own money, and accused the supposed “hidden taxes” of raising food prices. Peter Fragiskatos dismissed this and accused the Conservatives of being unserious. Brassard tried again, and Fragiskatos listed this as a populist distraction tactic. Rob Moore read the same script, and Evan Solomon recited talking points about the GST rebate and how the Conservatives are blocking their plans to build. Moore tried again, and Solomon repeated his same points. Gérard Deltell took over in French to read the same points, and this time, Marjorie Michel pointed to the previous tax cut and the GST rebate. Deltell raised food bank line-ups, and was reminded that they are following Food Banks Canada’s suggestions. 

Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and she raised the problems with the OAS payment system and said it was worse than claimed. Steven MacKinnon said that one error was one too many, and encouraged people to reach out to Service Canada if they have an issue. Normandin tried again, and MacKinnon again offered bland assurances that the modernised services were positive on the whole. Andréanne Larouche took over to ask the same again, and MacKinnon gave his assurances for a third time.

Round two, and Rhonda Kirkland read the food inflation script (Church: Hooray for the new benefit), Philip Lawrence tried again (Long: Your record on affordability is abysmal), Michael Kram read the same script (Dabrusin: The clean fuel regulations are some of the most pro-agriculture policies in the country that will create more value), Mark Dalton stumbled through the script (Church: Hooray for our announcement), and Kurt Holman read it again (Osborne: They keep voting against help for Canadians).

Xavier Barsalou-Duval demanded the government do something about “discount drivers” instead of “blaming the provinces” (MacKinnon: Our hearts go out to those who suffer tragedies on our highways, and we have put forward tangible measures, so you should support the budget).

Boy, the Bloc are quick to blame the federal government when the provincial government has shown no interest in solving a provincial issue. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-01-29T16:39:55.919Z

Michael Cooper complained on the lack of major project approvals (MacKinnon: Here are the projects we are advancing in your province), Steven Bonk another script of the same (Guay: You want to suggest that we are not building when we have secured the largest private sector LNG projects in history), Mike Lake returned to the claim that deficits cause food price inflation (Fragiskatos: Inflation is within target, and while food inflation is high, and you don’t even read the reports you cite that show climate change is responsible for those prices; We are committed to a fiscally responsible approach). 

Round three saw yet more questions on food prices (Provost: We have a suite of measures including the GST rebate; Ménard: We are working to transform the Canadian economy after it was rocked by American tariffs. Dabrusin: Studies have proven that the industrial carbon price has zero impact on the price of food; You are focused on imaginary taxes), housing (Robertson: Here are our measures to help young Canadians; Instead of slagging generations, you should help us make generational investments; These are unprecedented investments on government lands; Church: You voted against help for Canadians; McLean: My friends and I are millennials, and we want to see houses build, and you should stop obstructing; Naqvi: We need to invest in Canadians as the world is changing; Chi: We are putting money back into Canadians’ pockets), funding for Friendship Centres (Gull-Masty: We have been working with these groups to address this file), and cuts to public sector jobs (Ali: We deeply value their work, and we are committed to approaching this process compassionately). 

“Okay, penthouse boomer,” Mantle says, and thinks he’s clever.Deputy Speaker Nater tells him to start over. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-01-29T16:52:38.252Z

Overall, there was very little to recommend the day, from the constantly repeated scripts that we’ve had litigated the entire week, with tired back-patting from the government benches repeated the whole week. But hey, MPs need clips for their socials! If there was any particular exchange today that did need to be called out it, it was Jacob Mantle calling on the four youngest Liberals to account for themselves when it comes to housing prices. Of course, none of them are ministers and you can’t ask them questions, and the Speaker should have actually pointed this out, and the government benches should have refused to answer, but no, the Speaker said nothing Gregor Robertson got up to deliver his talking points regardless, and the whole hollow exchange carried on, cheapened even further when Mantle called Robertson “Penthouse Boomer.” Yes, this is the state of debate in the Parliament of Canada in the year 2006 of the Common Era. I weep for the future.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Christine Normandin for a half-sleeved black dress, and to John-Paul Danko for a navy three-piece suit with a white shirt and a burgundy tie and pocket square. Style citations go out to Gabriel Hardy for a light brown tweed suit over a chocolate brown shirt and tie, and to Stephanie McLean for a fuchsia jacket with rolled sleeves over a beige top and black slacks.