The PM was in the building, and had done the “walking in” introductions for the three newly-elected MPs this morning (unusually, as this is normally done just before QP), but he was not in Question Period for whatever reason. Pierre Poilievre was present, and led off in French, referencing a Journal de Montreal article about seniors who don’t feel they can retire, and he blamed this on “inflationary taxes and deficits” and wondered if the government would rein those in. François-Philippe Champagne took the opportunity to praise this morning’s announced sovereign wealth fund. Poilievre trotted out his new line about a “credit card budget” and demanded the government cap the size of the deficit. Champagne rattled off the growth rates in the G7 to note why Canada is expected to grow faster. Poilievre switched to English to decry the size of the deficit, and again repeated the “credit card” line along with the demand for a cap. Champagne repeated that they have good news about the sovereign wealth fund, and that they are building together to benefit together. Poilievre tried his “prime minister is in hiding” line and got cautioned for the Speaker, and then called the sovereign wealth fund a slush fund put on the country’s credit card. Champagne repeated his lines about the rate of economic growth in the G7. Poilievre trotted out his self-important claim that he had a better economic record than Carney, and again lamented the “credit card.” Steven MacKinnon got up to note that inflation is in the target range, and he wondered just what exactly counted as “inflationary spending.” Poilievre listed the high speed rail project, the gun buyback, consultants, bureaucracy, supposed “phoney refugees,” and so on. MacKinnon noted that it was funny to consider money that hasn’t been spent inflationary, and then wondered which other programmes counted.

Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and she lamented that the new U.S. tariff calculations were disproportionately targeting Quebec, and demanded a wage subsidy for affected industries. Joly agreed that the tariffs were abusive and agreed they would help workers. Normandin demanded more actions to help Quebec’s industries, and Joly pledged to continue defending Quebec’s workers. Gabriel Ste-Marie noted a business in his riding that is closing because of tariffs, and Joly again repeated that they are there for Quebec’s workers.

Round two, and Melissa Lantsman railed more nonsense about credit cards, and demanded a cap on the deficit (Long: Your leader has produced nothing while we have results; Hajdu: You voted against children getting food), Jasraj Hallan read the same script with added snideness (Hodgson: We are getting things built while they just complain), Pat Kelly read it again (Zerucelli: Hooray for building trades!), and Jagsharan Singh read the same script haltingly (Valdez: We have created over 94,000 jobs since September, and wages are up higher than inflation).

The Conservative daily script is all about the deficit being a “credit card.”I am going to lose my mind. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-04-27T18:35:27.587Z

Patrick Bonin decried that the government wants to pay for “dirty” pipelines (MacKinnon: We re building in all of Canada’s regions, which is why we are building at the Port of Montreal and Quebec; Dabrusin: We are a leader on methane regulations and clean energy).

Richard Martel read the “credit card” script in French with added sob stories about seniors (Joël Lightbound: You voted against help for seniors), Dominique Vien tried again (Provost: We have programmes to give purchasing power back to Canadians), Bernard Généroux read it a third time (Gainey: We are the ones who restored the retirement age, and we have supports for Canadians who need it), Eric Lefebvre read it again (Lightbound: The IMF says we have the strongest fiscal position in the G7), and Jacques Gourd read the same script without his trademarked hell (Joly: We have measures to help seniors, which you voted against).

Round three saw yet more questions on the deficit (van Koeverden: You don’t want to take care of people and don’t understand investments; Solomon: We cut taxes and have new benefits which you voted against; Long: We were elected to build the economy; Sidhu: Look at how many jobs our major approved projects are creating; Hodgson: We have the strongest economy in the G7; Look at all the things we’re building; Belanger: You’ve done nothing for Saskatchewan in ten years; McLean: We know that Canadians want us to invest in them, which means things like benefits; Blois: The IMF reaffirmed our strong fiscal position), the PrescribeIT programme (Michel: The provinces wanted this but it didn’t see success; It was intended to be self-funded over time, but provinces weren’t using it; This is why we need our Connected Care Act), family farms and taxes (MacDonald: We are aware of the issue, and we will discuss further with the minster of finance), and the lack of a registry for west coast fisheries (Thompson: We are working closely with Indigenous partners to co-develop a model that works on the west coast). 

“The deficit is the national credit card!”This bird knows the score: 👇 #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-04-27T19:19:40.312Z

Overall, if last week was a lot of flailing and throwing things against the wall to see if something would stick, then today was marketing. Poilievre put out an open letter this morning and held a press conference about “credit card budgeting,” calling on the prime minister to cap the size of the deficit and cut spending projects, and so today’s QP was just reinforcing that message so that they could get a bunch of members of caucus to put out clips about that same message. It was, of course, complete and utter nonsense. A federal deficit has absolutely no relation to credit card debt, and it’s not driving inflation, which remains within the Bank of Canada’s target range. The whole narrative is divorced from reality, but could a single member of government actually point any of this out? Of course not. It was just a litany of ministers patting themselves on the back for their programmes, and tutting at the Conservatives for voting against those programmes. There was no pushback against any of the absolute economic bunkum that Poilievre and his caucus are peddling, which winds up just leaving everyone worse off because the disinformation is allowed to fester (and no, legacy media absolutely will not correct the record either). 

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to David Myles for a tailored dark grey suit with a light blue shirt and navy tie, and to Mélanie Joly for a tailored burgundy suit with a matching scoop-necked top. Style citations go out to Patty Hajdu for a white jacket with giant pink florals over an off-white top and grey slacks, and to Scott Anderson for a dark grey suit over a cranberry shirt with a grey and beige striped tie.