Quite unusually in the life of this Parliament, the PM was in attendance for a second day in a row, and with yet another floor-crosser in his ranks, this time Lori Idlout from the NDP. Pierre Poilievre was also present, and he led off in French, and again insisted that there are 700 Iranian regime agents in Canada that the government has not removed. Mark Carney said that this is a serious situation, that the government has already stopped 10,000 IRGC from entering the country, that they are 140 investigations and 28 under removal orders. Poilievre then switched to English to meander about supposed flip-flops and then demanded the government develop more oil and as exports. Carney noted that they already have record production and that new projects are already approved. Poilievre gave another meandering demand for more pipelines to the Pacific, and Carney cited his own book to say that they want the lowest risk and lowest cost oil and gas sector, which is why they have the MOU with Alberta and the Bay Du Nord project. Poilievre went on a tangent about not having stockpiles of oil, and again demanded the government “get out of the way.” Carney responded with a jab about Poilievre searching for new ridings to run in before he again touted record production levels. Poilievre again went on about not having a stockpile before again demanding the government “get out of the way.” Carney reminded him that importers need strategic reserves while exporters do not, and that the G7 has authorised the release from their collective stockpile. Poilievre claimed that the stockpile logic was backwards—which his hilariously wrong, and Carney quipped that Poilievre thinks he’s tapping a rich vein when it’s just a dry well.
Idlout is sitting next to Carney for #QP.
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-03-11T18:20:43.585Z
Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and once again, she raised the pension software and demanded a public inquiry. Carney responded that Service Canada has more than 7.7 million people successfully transitioned to the system, and that the backlog was reduced by 10,000 over the past week. Normandin tried again, calling it a financial fiasco, and Carney said that her accusations don’t relate to facts and the system is on budget. Sébastien Lemire tried the same lines again, and Carney said that the Bloc have refused all offers of briefings on the matter.
Round two, and Melissa Lantsman accused the government of protecting Iranian terrorists (Anandasangaree: There are 28 removal orders going through due process, and your leader can get his security clearance if he has more questions; We listed the IRGC as a terrorist entity), Michelle Rempel Garner tried the same line of attack (Anandasangaree: There are 28 removal orders, and need to work with facts, and 700 is not a fact; There are bills you have not been supporting that could help), Frank Caputo tried that same line of attack again (Fraser: We are all aghast at the shootings against synagogues, and you need to support Bill C-9), and Pierre Paul-Hus tried this in French (MacKinnon: The minister just explained what is being done to remove these individuals, and you should support C-9; The IRGC was already declared a terrorist entity).
We are back to chiding Poilievre for not having a security clearance. #QP
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-03-11T18:37:11.936Z
Rempel Garner says that Global News is a credible outlet, if you are keeping track of which outlets are on the good books today. #QP
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-03-11T18:38:06.467Z
Jean-Denis Garon returned to his same question of appropriating land for the high speed rail line (MacKinnon: The project is dream-worthy, and we will be able to radically change things for people in these areas).
Roman Baber tried the same lines about Iranian agents (Fraser: You need to pass C-9; Anandasangaree: CSIS and not politicians assess threats, and CBSA is working on deportations), Vincent Ho read the same script (Anandasangaree: We just announced new security funding for synagogues and you need to pass C-9; Fraser: People not allowed to remain in Canada will be removed, and you need to pass C-9), and Harb Gill read the same script yet again (Sahota: We listed the IRGC as a terrorist entity and that gives the RCMP and CBSA the tools to investigate and remove those inadmissible).
Idlout gets a backbench suck-up question on her first day as a Liberal, and asks about food security in the North. Chartrand welcomes her to that side of the House, and says they are looking from moving from a food subsidy to a food economy in the North. #QP
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-03-11T18:52:46.666Z
Round three saw questions on imaginary taxes (Hodgson: Canadians understand there is a war going on, and our actions are reducing shortages, while exports are up; We are building though the major projects office; Dabrusin: The impact of the industrial carbon price on food is zero, but we are supporting greenhouse production in your area; MacDonald: research and development in agriculture has been shrinking, so we are talking action; McLean: Here are our programmes for seniors; Hajdu: Just yesterday one of your colleagues said that helping people is ideological; Fragiskatos: We put forward a serious plan for an opportunities agenda that includes purchasing power; Provost: We have given more purchasing power to Canadians, especially seniors), closing safe injection sites (Michel: There is not only one solution to this crisis, and these sites are there to save lives; We can walk and chew gum at the same time), the gun buyback affecting armed forces members on deployment (Anandasangaree: I want to thank those who have enrolled, and the amnesty period ends in October), trolling support for Jenny Kwan’s private member’s bill (Anand: We oppose this bill because we already have a strong export control regime, and this bill would decimate our defence industry).
The Conservatives are back to being absolute ghouls about safe consumption sites. #QP
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-03-11T19:10:18.340Z
Overall, it was slightly less of a clown show today, but it was still a bit odd in a couple of ways. The first was that the Conservatives are continuing to insist that there is this rash of Iranian terrorists living in Canada, which is a ridiculous claim. Poilievre insisted that the figure of 700 IRGC officials in Canada came from Global News, so I tracked down the story. Global did not say there were 700 in Canada—it said that in 2023, before the IRGC was listed as a terrorist entity, a civil society group tracked 700 names who were either temporary or permanent residents, or who had obtained citizenship. There is no reason to believe that number is still valid currently, and the government did a mediocre job of pushing back on this, pointing to twenty-eight pending deportation cases, but even then, they didn’t make the point that all of these cases require due process because we’re a rule of law country. Instead, the government mostly responded to these ridiculous accusations—particularly that they are “protecting” these Iranian regime agents—by exhorting the Conservatives to pass the hate crime bill, C-9. Seriously? This is how you respond to the accusation that you’ve been letting alleged terrorists into the country? It boggles the mind that they think this is an adequate answer.
The other ridiculous exchange was Poilievre meandering through supposed “flip-flops” by Carney to wind up at demands to extract and export more oil and gas, and his hilariously wrong notions about why Canada needs a strategic oil reserve. Carney did push back on this one a little more, point out (correctly) that countries that import oil and gas need a strategic reserve, while Canada, a net exporter, doesn’t (because our strategic reserve is to simply pump more oil out of the ground). But honestly, Poilievre keeps spouting complete economic nonsense and Carney doesn’t properly school him with facts on a consistent basis, which you would think that a former central bank governor should be well-placed to do.
Sartorially speaking, snaps go out Arielle Kayabaga for a navy suit with a black top, and to John-Paul Danko for a dark blue three-piece suit with a shirt shirt and a purple tartan tie. Style citations go out to Scott Anderson for a charcoal suit with a black crew-necked shirt and no tie, and to Shannon Stubbs for a leopard-print long-sleeved top under a beige sleeveless jacket and black slacks. Dishonourable mention goes out to Rebecca Alty for a black suit with a black and yellow floral top.