In spite of being in town and in the building, the PM was absent from QP, while Pierre Poilievre was also absent, though it sounds like this was when he and the PM were having their private meeting. That left Luc Berthold to lead off in French to read the same food price inflation script they’ve been reading all week. Steven MacKinnon pointed out that today, the House was set to pass the bill to enhance the GST credit (under a new and stupid name). Berthold insisted this credit would do nothing to lower prices, and Mélanie Joly repeated the praise for the credit, and thanked the Conservatives for supporting the bill. Mark Strahl took over in English and claimed that cutting imaginary taxes would lower prices (hint: it absolutely will not). MacKinnon repeated the same praise that the bill on the credit is due to be passed today. Strahl tried to again, and Patty Hajdu recycled yesterday’s line that the Conservatives used to always quote Food Banks Canada until they praised the GST credit plan. Scot Davidson claimed the economy was on “life support” before reciting the food price inflation points. Joly got back up to praise all of the new jobs that have been created, including in his riding. Davidson tried again, and Hajdu praised school food, child care, and noted the Conservatives stood against these.

Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and once again, she raised the problems with the pension software, and Hajdu read a statement about how the new platform requires an adaptation period, and that anyone affected needs to contact Service Canada and her office. Normandin wondered if the government ordered civil servants to lie rather than fix the problems, to which Stephanie McLean read her own statement in French. Andréanne Larouche raised the same issue again, and Hajdu read her statement again in French.

Round two, and Anna Roberts shouted her script on food price inflation (McLean: The only person who thinks your plan will work is your leader while we listened to experts and Food Banks Canada), David McKenzie read the same script (Olszewski: You should support a benefit that helps people in your riding), Connie Cody read more of the same (Sahota: We are doing more and working long-term solutions by building more resilient supply chains), Amanpreet Gill haltingly read it again (Fragiskatos: The Bank of Canada made it clear that import costs and climate change are driving this), Joël Godin read the script in French (Provost: Hooray for our GST credit), and same again from Jacques Gourde (Provost: Same again).

On the rare occasion that a member of the government benches points out that climate change drives food prices, the Conservative benches get very angry. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-02-04T19:41:19.067Z

Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay accused the government of blocking a trade agreement with Taiwan (LeBlanc: We are determined to expand our trade partners and we have tight ties with Taiwan), and Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe tried again (Sidhu: Same answer as LeBlanc).

Larry Brock thundered some nonsense about bail reform (Anandasangaree: You should pass our bail reform bill; Fraser: You have been obstructing our bill for months), Clifford Small recited another alarmist script of the same (Sahota: We have had a tough on crime agenda and you need to pass our lawful access bill), Michael Guglielmin demanded the government stop their gun buyback (Anandasangaree: The premiers all asked us to pass Bill C-14), and Carol Anstey read the same with added Karen energy (Sahota: We have seen an uptick in people surrendering their guns to get them out of our communities).

Round three saw questions on the state of the economy (Joly: The same data shows higher wages, lower interest rates, more jobs than the U.S., and we have shown resilience; Long: We have a leader with world-class economic experience; Hodgson: We are building again!; Fragiskatos: Work with us to build for the betterment of the country, as Harper called on them to do; MacKinnon: You need to pass our budget implementation bill; LeBlanc: Same answer; Joly: Same again), agricultural research versus “foreign virtue signalling” (MacDonald: We are maintaining our agricultural research in every province but streamlining operations), calling on the government to cancel all F-35 contracts (McGuinty: We are procuring a new fighter jets, and we are committed to procuring what the air force needs).

Could any member of the government point out that the drop in auto manufacturing was because of a shortage of semiconductor chips? It’s right there in the data! #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-02-04T19:57:17.199Z

Today it’s Jacob Mantle’s turn to decry the lack of a deal with the US in spite of the fact that THERE IS NO DEAL TO BE HAD! #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-02-04T19:58:15.515Z

Overall, the first half was essentially a rerun of every other day in the past week-and-a-half that they’ve been sitting, with a couple of additional faces popping up to get their clips for their own socials, but it was in the second half that we got some new-ish material, both from the Bloc asking about the stalled trade deal with Taiwan (which the government ministers talked around and didn’t actually answer), or the assertion that the economy was on “life support,” even though it was quite clear that they didn’t bother to actually read the reports where they got those figures from. If they had, they would have clearly seen that, for example, it was a shortage of semiconductor chips that caused the drop in auto production which in turn had an impact on the GDP. And even though this cause is right there in the data, do you think that any member of the government could actually point this out, to demonstrate how ridiculous the Conservatives sound when they blame these issues on “taxes and red tape”? Of course not. Instead, they praised some job creation numbers, and their plans for the new GST rebate, and so on. It will never cease to astound me that the government can simply site the data to shut down the most ridiculous lines of attack being deployed against them, but the simply refuse to do so. It’s as much malpractice as the Conservatives’ ignoring that same data is misinformation, and Canadians certainly deserve better.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Sandra Cobena for an eggplant suit with a white v-necked top, and to Tim Louis for a fitted navy suit over a white shirt and a pale pink tie. Style citations go out to Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay for a dark grey jacket over a lighter grey waistcoat, a cranberry red shirt and a comically-oversized black tie, and to Tamara Kronis for a blue jacket with a tight floral pattern over a black top and slacks.