The PM was in southwestern Ontario for his auto strategy announcement, while Pierre Poilievre was present, and he led off in French, with a somber delivery of his script on food price inflation, with the added accusation that the government gave us a weak dollar. François-Philippe Champagne said that it was the Conservatives obstructing their measures to grow the economy. Poilievre hit back that Champagne promised to stabilise food prices two years ago and they were still rising, to which Champagne quoted Poilievre’s own words around the past support for the previous GST rebate. Poilievre switched to English to denounce that auto production has fallen by half and decried that the government was subsidising American vehicles, and Champagne praised the “good news” of their auto strategy. Poilievre hammered that Champagne saw the loss of auto production and jobs, and wanted the government to eliminate the GST on Canadian-made vehicles. Champagne countered that he brought over a European auto manufacturer to Canada. Poilievre made the same demand, and Champagne patted himself on the back for their investments in the auto sector of tomorrow with EV supply chains. Poilievre pivoted and accused the government of letting Bishnoi Gang members into the country with no screening and letting them stay with refugee claims. Sean Fraser retorted that the Conservatives were obstructing lawful access measures (as well they should, because it’s unconstitutional!)

Yves Perron led for the Bloc, and he raised the Bloc’s issue of the week around the problems with pension payment software. Patty Hajdu read a script about the department working to rapidly resolve the issues. Perron tried again, and Stephanie McLean haltingly read her own statement of the same. Andréanne Larouche gave it another round of the same, and Hajdu defended her bilingualism before thanking the civil service for shrinking the backlog.

Round two, and Melissa Lantsman returned to the scripts on food prices (MacKinnon: Pass the budget bill; Hajdu: You keep voting against supports for people), Stephanie Kusie read the script with added melodrama (Long: Our prime minister has world-class economic experience; MacKinnon: The prime minster is creating investments in Canada, and we created more jobs then the U.S.), Sukhman Gill read the script with bombast (McKnight: We have taken steps to address this with our benefit), and Pierre Paul-Hus demanded access to affordable housing (Provost: We are giving back purchasing power to Canadians; MacKinnon: I’m not sure this question has anything to do with our government).

Patrick Bonin praised the reinstatement of the EV rebate but that they are blocking EVs from Europe (Bardeesy: We welcome those imports).

Scott Aitchison worried about young people not being able to buy their first homes (Robertson: We introduced the Build Canada Homes Act this morning, and we need your support to pass the budget; Why don’t you care about renters?), Dan Muys read the same script (Robertson: We want to restore affordability), Amarjeet Gill haltingly read the same script (Sahota: Pass the budget bill), Burton Bailey demanded Robertson sit down with the city of Red Deer (Olszewski: You are out of step with your provincial counterparts).

Scott Anderson shouting to Gregor Robertson: “Have you ever held a hammer?” #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-02-05T19:44:17.622Z

Round three saw questions on the auto strategy (Bardeesy: This is about sovereignty and electrification), new pipelines (Hodgson: Trans Mountain will be increasing the amount of oil they transport by ten percent), stalled growth (MacKinnon: The first major national project breaks ground this spring; Sidhu: Here are jobs being generated by our big projects; Belanger: You stifled our potential by saying we were broken; Solomon: We like to build, they like to block; Hodgson: Support the budget so we can unlock investments), pension software problems (Hajdu: Transforming a sixty-year-old system is difficult, and 98 percent of cases are fine, and we can help accelerate cases in dire need), agricultural research (MacDonald: We are still the largest funder in the country and we are still doing research), housing delays in Nunavut (Robertson: We reached an agreement to deliver more than 750 homes in the region), licensing a cross-border electricity deal (Hodgson: We are building a clean energy future), the frozen water crisis at a Northern Manitoba First Nation (Olszewski: Our department is in contact with them), and cuts to international development (Sidhu: We remain committed to our long-term objectives).

Kyle Seeback accused the government of standing with Trump (because they are subsidising American-made EVs) and got shouted down. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-02-05T19:50:40.957Z

Overall, it was a weird day, and the vibe was off in the Chamber. Poilievre asking his food questions in French but not English was strange, and only asking auto questions in English and not French was also a tell as to who he thinks is audience for this particular line of attack is. Nevertheless, the entire line of attack—that the government is merely subsidizing American-made EVs—is strange because the auto sector is integrated, and parts cross the border, so there are no real “American” or “Canadian” vehicles. To try and limit incentives to those vehicles whose final assembly is in Canada doesn’t make sense for the industry as a whole, much less to remove the GST on those vehicles alone when, again, parts for all autos cross the borders, doesn’t seem to make any sense (unless I’m missing something). If there was a wholly-Canadian made EV on the market, that might be a different story, but at this stage, I don’t believe there are any on the market.

Otherwise, much of the exchanges were frankly just annoying because it was an excuse to put up a bunch of backbenchers who don’t get much camera time to read the same scripts so that hey can get their requisite clips for their socials, and transparently so at that. The government changed their message a little bit, and were a little less self-congratulatory today and instead spent most of their time demanding the Conservatives stop obstructing the budget implementation bill, which only just started study in committee, so it feels a bit premature to call out obstruction at this stage (though they should have called it out more forcefully in December when they went for weeks at second reading, entirely unnecessarily).

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Rachael Thomas for a trim-fitted dark grey long jacket over a black top and slacks, and to Burton Bailey for a dark grey three-piece suit with a crisp white shirt and a dark blue spotted tie. Style citations go out to Scott Anderson for a dark grey suit over a black t-shirt, and to Lianne Rood for a black wrap dress with pink florals. Dishonourable mention goes out to Rebecca Alty for a mustard yellow jacket over a black and white striped top and black slacks.