The PM was in town but away from the Chamber, while Pierre Poilievre was present, and he led off in French, claiming it was an illusion that the war in the Middle East was raising gasoline prices when he claimed it was Liberal taxes and the weak dollar. (Are you kidding me?!) François-Philippe Champagne, in his usual ebullient manner, praised the “good news” of the actions the government has taken to assure affordability. Poilievre then claimed that they were blaming housing prices on Iran (huh?) and demanded the government cut all gasoline taxes. Champagne reminded him of the statements of the International Energy Agency that we are in the worst energy crisis in the history, and exhorted the  opposition to vote for their budget bill. Poilievre switched to English, and he lamented all of the taxes people need to pay, and that the government is planning to triple the “Netflix tax.” (There is no Netflix tax). Champagne decried that the Conservatives have voted against all affordability measures. Poilievre then pivoted to property rights in BC, and falsely claimed the government was forbidden to defend those rights, and Rebecca Alty read her statement that the government has defended fee simple and that they are pursuing the matter in the courts. Poilievre tried again, and Sean Fraser reminded him of the actions they are taken to protect property rights while advancing reconciliation. Poilievre insisted that he just wanted federal lawyers to make protection or property the primary argument, and claimed that they were banned of doing so. Alty read a script about the litigation directive as to why Poilievre is wrong.

Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and mocked that the federal government is “reviewing” the referendum question in Alberta, and that the Clarity Act is contempt for people and provinces. Dominic LeBlanc said that how is the time to work together to counter the tariff threats from the US, and they were working to show that Confederation works. Normandin was not mollified and went to bat for separatist referendums, and LeBlanc reiterated that they are focused squarely on economic issues. Rhéal Fortin took over to read his own condemnation of the Clarity Act, and LeBlanc repeated his same assurances.

Round two, and Jasraj Hallan read some nonsense about the deficit and job losses (Hajdu: I am proud to support the budget bill because people need supports; Maybe you should go to Northern Ontario to listen to the mining sector who are applauding our programmes), Rhonda Kirkland equated the deficit to gas prices (MacKinnon: You voted against measures to help Canadians; McLean: I hear no common sense from the to their side), Ned Kuruc read the same script (van Koeverden: You voted against measures to help people), Rachael Thomas decried the “Netflix Tax” and claimed that only Parliament can levy them (Myles: This is about applying existing rules and ensuring fair competition). 

The Conservatives are back to scripts decrying “Liberal inflation.”Inflation remains in the target band. Core inflation is on target. FFS. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-05-25T18:39:12.272Z

Rachael Thomas is screaming that the CRTC has no authority to level a “Netflix tax.”There is no Netflix tax. The Conservatives are just making shit up. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-05-25T18:40:05.646Z

Patrick Bonin decried the government’s betrayal of the environment with their Alberta agreement (Provost: We live in the world as it is and not how we wish it to be, and we haven’t given up on Net zero by 2050; Lightbound: I am proud to be part of a government that takes the environment seriously).

Pierre Paul-Hus read a horseshit script about the clean fuel standard (Provost: We already reduced the excise tax; Lightbound: If you want to help Canadians, you should vote for our measures), Eric Lefebvre decried the spaceport lease (McGuinty: Sovereign space launch capacity is essential for our economy) and went on a rant about debt and housing prices (Lightbound: We are supporting next generation with $6 billion for the trades, and we just announced the Biggest graphite mine in the G7), and Bernard Généroux decried youth job losses as a result of the deficit (Joly: We are creating jobs for the next generation, like the Airbus deal). 

Round three saw questions on the Cowichan decision (Noormohamed: This is misinformation or disinformation; McKnight: We have been clear that we are protecting privacy rights, while you are crating fear and uncertainty; Robertson: You are fear-mongering and it’s shameful; Sarai: The only party bringing up fear is the Conservatives; McLean: We are taking appropriate action by appealing this decision while the Conservatives are spreading disinformation), whether the immigration minister will show up for Committee of the Whole (Diab: I am here and I will be here for it; Canadians expect transparency and not bullying unlike you do; MacKinnon: The minister just said she would be hear, and listed her accomplishments), lax airport security investigations (Anandasangaree: Canadian law enforcement works with airport authorities), extortion cases (Anandasangaree: I want to congratulate the police for the arrest of seventeen individuals on extortion cases; Sahota: We could have made arrests after with lawful access), that stalled CBC “prank” production (Myles: CBC is independent and you should direct your comments to them), and the “bullying” of First Nations leaders (Grant: Hooray for our agreement with Alberta). 

Ruby Sahota says that the extortion arrests could have happened faster with lawful access laws. Trying to exhort the need for more police surveillance is extremely concerning. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-05-25T19:09:17.460Z

Aaron Gunn wants the government to control what the CBC broadcasts as he calls it a “state broadcaster.” #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-05-25T19:10:52.216Z

Overall, it there was nothing overly novel about what went down, other than the fact that Pierre Poilievre seems to be engaging in talking point necromancy and he resurrected the fictional “Netflix tax” from the dead. To be clear—there is no “Netflix tax.” The CRTC mandated that American web streaming giants will have to pay into the same Canadian content ecosystem that Canadian broadcasters pay into (which they can then draw from in order to create these shows to put on their platforms). And sure, they may want to bellyache about it, but Poilievre doesn’t have to give them cover, not does he have to ignore the whole point of this levy, but he did, as did his MPs when they returned to the question. And to be sure, David Myles did put facts on the record in response, but man, there is nothing the Conservatives will not lie shamelessly about.

Otherwise, there was another round of getting every BC Conservative MP to stand up to read more disinformation into the record about the Cowichan decision and property rights, ahead of their Supply Day motion on the subject, and the government remains middling in their how they are responding to these bad-faith questions. As for the rest of the questions, there was a weird mash-up of talking points relating to the deficit, inflation (which is on target), and taxes on gasoline, conflating causality for these issues, because this is what you get when you simply mix-and-match talking points with no logical coherence between them.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Rachael Thomas for a light grey skirt suit with a white top, and to Ben Carr for a dark grey suit with a crisp white shirt and a dark purple tie. Style citations go out to Kevin Waugh for a milk chocolate brown jacket over a white shirt, navy slacks and a red spotted tie, and to Madeleine Chenette for a fluorescent orange jacket over a dark grey top with black slacks.