The PM was present today for the only time this week, as was Pierre Poilievre and the other leaders. Poilievre led off in French, and he worried that last week, Mark Carney said that food prices were high because of the low dollar, and he insisted that Carney needs to answer for that weak dollar. Carney said that the value of the dollar is rising, and that they are working to build big things. Poilievre insisted that Carney was only just answering in slogans and demeaned an answer. Carney said that there is a lag in part because the Conservatives are obstructing their legislation. Poilievre switched so English to raise their Supply Day motion, and accused the government of “obstructing” said motion that would seek to deny anyone accused of serious crimes of claiming asylum (amongst other things), and Carney took this as an opportunity to talk about the Conservatives obstructing numerous bills. Poilievre said the government was obstructing their own bills, and then read their motion again. Carney insisted that they are “taking control” of immigration and that asylum claims are down, and there are also trying to tighten bail laws. Poilievre pointed again, this time to his scripts about subsidies for “American-made” EVs and wanted all Canadian-made vehicles to be made tax-free instead. Carney praised their auto strategy in collaboration with the provinces. Poilievre tried again with added bombast, and suggested he listen to the sector or the conservative premier of Ontario about the value of their auto strategy. 

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and raised the Davos speech, and wondered why, if the U.S. is not a reliable contract, that they would be pursuing the F-35 deal. Carney said that wasn’t in the speech, and that the government was making some expenditures to keep their options open. Blanchet talked around a little before getting to the issue of the Gordie Howe Bridge, and Carney repeated what he told the media earlier about what he told Trump about the facts of the bridge. Blanchet wondered why the government was not protecting the country and scrapping the F-35 contract. Carney said they were still weighing options, including what to will create jobs in Quebec. 

Round two, and Jasraj Hallan rushed through a bunch of absolute nonsense about “hidden taxes” and “inflationary deficits” (Champagne: We will take no lessons…; Move on, we have the second-fastest growth in the G7), Mark Strahl read the food price inflation script (Long: We cut taxes and the carbon levy; You supporter giving child care cheques to millionaires), Dan Albas recited the same script (McLean: if you cut the industrial carbon price, it would do nothing as it’s not the cause of food prices), Jacob Mantle demanded the end of the imaginary taxes (Valdez: You opposed our housing programmes), Sandra Cobena also read the same script (Valdez: You voted against our generational investments in the economy).

Andréanne Larouche returned to her bugaboo about the pension software (MacKinnon: You are misquoting people, and we take each and every case seriously, but have modernised the system; McLean: If we had not taken action to modernise the system, it would have created more problems, and we will help anyone affected).

Tim Uppal returned to the demands to support their Supply Day motion (Sahota: Our legislation will help, but you need to support Lawful Access), Frank Caputo gave the same nonsense (Sarai: You don’t know the law as it stands, where you can’t claim asylum if you are charged), Tamara Jansen gave the same (Sarai: Same answer), and Amanpreet Gill also read the same script yet again (Fraser: You can help pass our bills on the Order Paper).

We have both sides of the Chamber villainising the asylum process. There’s no way that won’t blow up on our faces… #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-02-10T19:48:49.538Z

Round three saw questions on the EV subsidies (Joly: Why are you so against this industry?; Are you calling for a boycott of EVs made with Canadian parts?; Joly: We are investing in the future; Transportation electrification creates jobs, and the auto sector is integrated so American cars use Canadian parts; Anand: You don’t recognise the measures we have taken to protect the sector and workers; Solomon: You are talking down the economy and workers; Zerucelli: Jobs are up, wages are rising, and we have a plan to invest in workers), the withholding rate on severance packages (Anand: I represent auto workers and they want us to keep supporting them), pension issues (Hajdu: Anyone with a problem can reach out to Service Canada or my office; These civil servants have been working hard to learn and adapt to the new system), forestry job losses (Hodgson: While you are obstructing, we have proposed $2.5 billion in support for the sector), an RCMP detachment in Surrey (Anandasangaree: I will work with the Commissioner to ensure that their needs are addressed), the Cuban blockade (Anand: We are deeply concerned and we are working with the Cuban authorities to ensure a timely and effective response), and Alberta expanding private health services (Michel: We are looking into what his happening and I am engaged with my provincial counterpart). 

Overall, it was a mediocre day, where there was again a missed opportunity by Carney to actually impart some economic knowledge to both Poilievre and the country. The whole part about the weak dollar and trying to blame Carney for it could have been a chance to point out that the floating dollar acts as a shock-absorber and that’s exactly what it has been doing over the past year given the attacks on our economy by the Trump administration, but no, he didn’t do that. Instead, we got a couple of platitudes about building big things, which doesn’t help anyone. What good is having a former central banker as your prime minister if he merely imparts platitudes on a daily basis? There were more substantive answers coming from Justin Trudeau more days of the week than we get from Carney in his nine responses a week, and we need to actually call this out.

Otherwise, it was good to finally get Joly in particular to talk about how we have an integrated auto sector, so the Conservatives’ claims that only one EV counts as Canadian were finally, finally debunked but this should have happened on the first day this particular talking point was raised by the Conservatives. I’ve said it before and I will keep saying it, but I do not understand why the Liberals are so bad at pointing out the absolute basics to the Conservatives. This edict about how if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all, or “if you’re explaining, you’re losing” means that so much of the absolute nonsense in this Chamber goes unchallenged nineteen times out of twenty, and you would think it would behove the government to actually correct facts and put them on the record rather than just mouthing good-news talking points.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Anita Anand for a plum-coloured jacket over a white collared top and black slacks, and to Mark Eyolfson for a navy suit with a dark blue shirt and a hot pink tie and pocket square. Style citations go out to Yves-François Blanchet for grey-brown jacket over a light blue shirt, navy slacks, and an indigo tie with a blue and pink pocket square, and to Tamara Jansen for a jacket with a orange, pink and blue floral pattern over a navy dress.