The PM was finally present today, sure to make a victory lap before taking off again. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and he listed the supposed taxes on fuel (not all of which are taxes), and he took credit for Mark Carney taking off the excise tax, and invited him to remove all others. Carney praised the government’s “comprehensive” plan for affordability which is not just the excise tax, but their other tax cuts. Poilievre decried the effect on the working class, lied about “printing money,” and returned to his demand about removing other taxes. Carney noted that he is the federal prime minister and the biggest taxes on Gasoline are provincial, before he noted that inflation is on target and salaries are rising at twice the rate of inflation. Poilievre turned to English to repeat his first question, and this time, Carney repeated his response and added that Poilievre’s plan would substantially raise the deficit. Poilievre repeated his lie about money printing, and Carney raised his record as a central bank governor and repeated his point about inflation and wages rising faster. Poilievre kept going about the lie about “money-printing,” and tried to claim economic superiority, and Carney retorted that he feels like he is in the presence of students before praising the IMF’s latest projections for the Canadian economy. Poilievre shrugged this off as “Liberal arrogance,” and repeated his demand to cut all gas taxes. Carney said that to learn a lesson, you needs to have ears to hear, and that some on the opposition benches were listening, before he praised the increase in wages. 

John-Paul Danko just got warned by the Speaker for chirping about Poilievre’s education. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-04-15T18:26:55.427Z

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and he raised the recent White House changes to steel and aluminium tariffs, and wondered what the response was. Carney assured him that they are working on it, and engaging stakeholders to build a strong Quebec and Canada. Blanchet carried on worrying about these changes, and Carney insisted that negotiations are ongoing, but we are still starting off with the best agreement in the world with the U.S. Blanchet carried on with the worries about companies in this situation and Carney notes that since his election, tariffs have come down, and they are still working toward more progress, before patting himself on the back for the Terrebonne victory.

Round two, and Carol Anstey read the script about gas taxes with some real Karen energy (Thompson: Hooray for our investments in Newfoundland and Labrador; We are working to support rural communities and families), Andrew Lawton theatrically recited the script (Hodgson: We already cut the consumer carbon levy and income taxes), Ned Kuruc read the same again (van Koeverden: We are meeting the moment with a tax cut and supports for Canadians; Solomon: You can’t seem to take yes for an answer), and Bob Zimmer raised the Nutrition North report on Inuit food insecurity before trying to use this to demand the gas taxes cut (Chartrand: We are making life more affordable in the North with our programmes).

Martin Champoux worried about local news funding in Québec (Miller: We are supporting francophone media in a variety of ways).

Jason Groleau read the French version of the gas taxes script (Joly: We have taken measures like suspending the excise tax; We will work with the new premier of Quebec), Eric Lefebvre tried again (Lightbound: you keep voting against help for your own constituents) before demanding lifting the GST on all new homes (Lightbound: We are going further with Build Canada Homes, and Quebec was the first province to sign an agreement with them), Richard Martel also read a script about housing prices in Quebec (Joly: We will go further by investing in your riding to secure more home-building).

Marilyn Gladu, pleased as punch, reads a happy script about the gas excise tax cut, inviting Wayne Long to crow about it some more. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-04-15T18:52:50.279Z

Round three saw yet more questions on cutting gas taxes (Turnbull: We will save Canadians money at the gas pump with the excise tax being suspended, and we have other tax cuts and benefits; You voted against every measure; Thompson: We have supported the province with Baie Du Nord; Olszewski: Hooray for the excise tax cut), the supposed ethics conflicts for the finance minister (MacKinnon: The minister has fully answered the questions and we follow the strictest ethics rules in the world; Hooray for high speed rail; Brassard: The ethics committee is entering into the twelfth hour of a filibuster), the pay raises with the military being inadequate (McGuinty: There is nothing fake about these raises; You voted against every proposal to help our Forces), steel tariffs (Joly: We are negotiating with the Americans), and the news story on overcharged meat prices (Joly: We don’t want companies to pass costs to consumers, and the Competition Bureau needs to do its work).

John Brassard, showboating, quotes Carney saying a majority will see less showboating. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-04-15T19:06:19.345Z

A backbench suck-up question uttered the line “our new majority government.”I hate it here. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-04-15T19:13:08.643Z

Overall, the leader’s round was the chippiest it’s been in a while, with Poilievre having the audacity to insist that has a better grasp of economics than Carney when he watched some crypto-bro YouTube videos instead of having a PhD. Carney responded with some humour, saying he felt like he was among students, but he didn’t push back very hard on the nonsense Poilievre was pushing, nor did most of the responses to the interminable questions on gas taxes, and the various ways that the Conservatives tried to wedge that into other issues.

Otherwise, there wasn’t a whole lot else to recommend the day, with the only other thing of note being that that the Conservatives didn’t repeat their litany of borderline racists questions on the Cowichan decision like they did the previous two days. Instead, we did see a question to a Conservative committee chair that, while permissible, skirted the rules of what is permissible for a committee chair to respond in QP. It’s tiresome, but this is where we are.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Mélanie Joly for a long camel-coloured jacket over matching slacks with a grey top, and to Arnold Viersen for a dark blue three-piece suit with a crisp white shirt and bright red tie. Style citations go out to Ernie Klassen for a taupe jacket over a faded yellow shirt, navy tie and slacks, and to Rhonda Kirkland for an ill-cut blue-grey striped jacket over a black v-necked top and matching slacks.