The PM was in town but otherwise preoccupied, while Pierre Poilievre was also absent, which led Melissa Lantsman to stand up and lament the lack of investment building in the country. Tim Hodgson stood up, suggested she stop the clickbait, and then listed major projects approved in each province. Lantsman dismissed this as nothing actually built (because it can happen overnight), before lamenting the food inflation numbers and demanded the government bring down the cost of government. François-Philippe Champagne got up to list the “good news” of IMF projections, and high Canadian Forces recruitment. Lantsman went on a tear about affordability, to which Patty Hajdu accused the Conservatives of sticking “spokes in the wheels” of Canadians. Pierre Paul-Hus took over in French to slam Carney’s video and the lack of pipelines built of new trade deals. Dominic LeBlanc thanked him for his support of C-5 and noted the projects that are getting underway. Paul-Hus lamented food prices, and Champagne reiterated his “good news” talking points en français. Paul-Hus then mischaracterised the deal with China and falsely claimed Carney had promised a trade deal by now, and LeBlanc got back up to remind them that they are working to improve the situation, which included diversifying trade with other reliable partners and building major projects.

In advance of today's #QP and the inevitable wailing and gnashing of teeth about food price inflation, here is what StatsCan said the biggest driver was last month.Spoiler: It's still climate. www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quo…

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-04-20T15:07:22.716Z

Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and she also raised Carney’s video and the lack of a deal with the U.S. as they keep imposing new tariffs. LeBlanc repeated his line about diversifying trade partners and building national projects while understanding the importance of steel and aluminium at home. Normandin demanded ties with the U.S. be strengthened and not discarded (which nobody is actually proposing), and Champagne got back up to note that he was in Washington last week and they are still talking, while pointing to the importance of diversifying trade. Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay lamented that Carney is not consulting enough on his files, to which LeBlanc disputed the premise of the question. 

Round two, and Jasraj Hallan read some vaguely insulting lines (Long: We have the enhanced GST credit coming out; MacKinnon: The excise tax break starts today which goes with the benefits we have already brought in), Leslyn Lewis read the sad talking points about gas taxes (Gainey: We are delivering relief at the pumps; Valdez: Same answer), Lianne Rood read some lies about “printing money” (Gainey: Same answer; van Koeverden: We’re not blaming global factors, we are acknowledging them), William Stevenson read more bullshit about food prices (Olszewski: Albertans are happy with our gas tax pause).

Conservatives are blaming high food costs on gas prices, in spite of StatsCan explicitly saying that the prices rose because of growing conditions in producer countries. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-04-20T18:39:15.811Z

“It’s money printing!”#QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-04-20T18:39:15.812Z

Rhéal Fortin decried any guardrails around use of the Notwithstanding Clause (Fraser: The federal government doesn’t have the authority to change the powers of the provinces, and my comments were in a context of a Senate bill that only concerns the federal government’s powers; Lightbound: Same answer).

Luc Berthold returned to complains about gas taxes in French (Bendayan: We have the enchanted GST credit; Provost: You voted against school food), Joël Godin accused the government of only making symbolic gestures (MacKinnon: Gas prices are going down in your riding because of us; Lightbound: Hooray for our benefits), and Richard Martel tried yet again on the gas tax demand (Gainey: We suspended the excise tax on fuel).

Round three saw questions on trade with the U.S. (Bardeesy: Trade with the U.S. is important but it’s important to diversify; Blois: Hooray for measures we are taking; Naqvi: We are working to get a good deal, but it’s also important to diversify), housing permits being down (Robertson: Build Canada Homes is also about long-term changes; Long: You should support our housing measures), more false assertions about Champagne’s alleged conflicts (MacKinnon: We live under the strictest ethics rules in the world), housing funds (Robertson: We are ensuring compliance with agreements), and a pipeline leak (Grant: We take protection of health of communities and waters seriously).

Misquoting the PM in bad faith! *drink!* #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-04-20T18:50:38.027Z

We are back to pretending that Trump is a rational actor and that the reason we don’t have a tariff deal is Carney. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-04-20T18:57:53.897Z

Aitchison: Home building permits are down. Liberal backbencher: Talk to Doug Ford! Worst housing starts in the country! #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-04-20T18:59:24.312Z

Overall, it was a bit of a confused day, where the Conservatives didn’t quite know where to strike when it came to their targets—the inflation data was out that they were insistent on twisting into something that the data didn’t say, while still trying to score points on gas taxes, while also trying to score points against Carney’s video yesterday. It just became a confused mess, trying to blame food prices on gas taxes (which is just risible—the StatsCan report explicitly named adverse growing conditions in producer countries for why there was high food price inflation), and yes, they’re back to making up nonsense about “money-printing” which isn’t happening, but gods forbid anyone on the government benches actually point this out. When it comes to what Carney said in the video, the Conservatives torqued it entirely in bad faith—Carney did not say trade with the U.S. was a weakness, but that their being our only market was. He also didn’t promise he would have a trade deal by last July, but Conservatives keep insisting he did. But bad faith is pretty much what the Conservatives run on, so none of this is a surprise, but again, it just turned the day into an incoherent mess.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Rachel Bendayan for a burgundy suit with a black top, and to Eric Melillo for a tailored eggplant suit with a crisp white shirt and a black tie. Style citations go out to Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay for a dark grey three-piece suit with faded bright blue shirt with one of his black spotted comically-oversized ties, and to Linda Lapointe for a black and floral dress under a red jacket.