The PM was still at the G7 in France, while Pierre Poilievre was also absent, and for some reason, Branden Leslie led off with a shouted recitation of the “recession” script, and François-Philippe Champagne suggested that the Conservatives were not happy but he bought good news about the highest level of foreign direct investment and the second-fastest growth in the G7. Leslie cited people turning to GoFundMe pages to afford to live, and Champagne assured him that Canadians don’t want another clip, they want action, and he listed measures the government has taken. Gabriel Hardy took forward in French, read a weeks-ago talking point about the prime minister talking about the level of affordability before reading today’s clip-bait about GoFundMe pages. Champagne accused the Conservatives of hypocrisy for their voting against programmes to help people. Hardy suggested that people want the government to stop what’s not working, and that government spending was driving the country into recession. Lightbound suggested the number of people in Hardy’s riding getting that GST credit would disagree. Shannon Stubbs picked up the metaphorical baton to angrily read the day’s script, including the GoFundMe mention, and this time Tim Hodgson listed programmes that are getting underway. Stubbs railed about the prime minister’s in-flight catering and meandered into the “inflationary spending” talking point. Steven MacKinnon got up to wonder what the Conservatives are for if they vote against all measures to help people.

Yves Perron led for the Bloc, and complained about the programming motion on Bill C-22 and time allocation on Bill C-30. MacKinnon took a swipe at the Bloc for opposing the high-speed rail project and all of good things it would bring. Perron kept up his complaints about these “gag orders” that prevent MPs from doing their jobs, and to keep civil society from realising the abuse in those laws. MacKinnon said they would not apologise for working on the priorities of Canadians, like high-speed rail. (Erm, lawful access is not this, guys). Claude DeBellefeuille took her own crack at complaining about the motion on Bill C-22, and Lightbound said he wouldn’t apologise for taking action on things like transit…which again, is not lawful access.

Round two, and Stephanie Kusie complained about the changes to Access to Information (Ali: We launched a consultation process), Garnett Genuis complained about subsidies going to a fisheries company (Thompson: Any decisions I make are balanced with consultations not conspiracy theories), Michael Cooper complained about missed deadlines for the foreign influence registry (Anandasangaree: We passed the appointment of the commissioner weeks ago and he is working on the establishment of regulations), Jacques Gourde worried about the lease on the interim navy supply ship (Romanado: We are investing billions in naval construction, and we will acquire up to twelve submarines), Shuvalou Majumdar wondered about the anti-slavery report from the CORE ombudsman not being tabled for the past three years (Anand: We stand with our legal obligations, and you should pass Bill C-35), Tamara Kronis worried about delays to disability credit applications (Hajdu: We work diligently to ensure people get access to benefits), and Carol Anstey asked to speak to the manager about the risk of wildfire at Gros Morne National Park (Dabrusin: Parks Canada takes this very seriously and we have measures in all national parks).

Andréanne Larouche demanded more government funding to help prevent homelessness (Desrochers: You know very well that we are focusing on solutions to homelessness and hooray for Build Canada Homes), and Sébastien Lemire asked the same again (Desrochers: You are politicising a serious issue).

The very masculine Jacob Mantle complained about the government’s conduct over the lawful access bill (Anandasangaree: That’s not how legislation works, this is a comprehensive bill), Frank Caputo carried on this issue (Sahota: You keep opposing our crime bills), Mike Lake wondered why the government is ignoring the findings of a report on FASD (Chi: I look forward to working with you on this), Gérard Deltell complained about hacks at the CRA (Champagne: We implemented a number of measures to address issues at the CRA), and John Barlow complained about fertiliser prices and the current tariff on them (MacDonald: We are caught in a geopolitical situation and we are monitoring the situation).

Round three saw questions on a drinking water programme at a specific lake (Lightbound: I will be happy to work with you on this, as well as the Quebec City tramway), the 22-caliber guns seized in the buyback (Anandasangaree: The misinformation in this continues, and 140,000 have been turned over), making LNG a requirement for Port of Churchill investment (MacKinnon: We are studying options), the Palestinian representative meeting with the Human Rights Museum (Miller: It’s not the place of the minster to dictate museum programming), covering veterinarians under the student loan forgiveness programme (Hajdu: Lakehead University in my riding is opening a new veterinary school, and you should stop voting against Canada Student Loans), First Nations housing (Gull-Masty: We are spending $5.9 billion not just to build homes but also the support systems to upkeep them), female veterans supports (McKnight: We thank the members of this council, and I welcome all advocacy), the final regulations on the HST rebate on new homes (Champagne: Pass Bill C-26), imported garage doors from China with toxic chemicals (MacKinnon: If this company has an issue with the government, they should communicate with us), citizenships issued since Bill C-3 passed (Diab: You need to present a link to Canada, and we will safeguard the programme), public access points to navigable waters (Provost: We are investing in our nature strategy and we work on this), office space shortages for civil servants (Lightbound: We are working to have the spaces they need), if the PM is satisfied with his front bench (MacKinnon: Is your leader happy with his backbench, given your credentials are that you wrote his biography), surveillance pricing (Solomon: We are proud of the bill we tabled), and something rambling about Elon Musk’s fortune (Champagne: Every Canadian pays their fair share, and by the way, we just signed an infrastructure investment with Quebec).

Overall, it was another day where the Conservatives’ gimmick was to ask a litany of questions on a number of different topics, and once again, declared at the end that the government was incompetent in their answers, but the fact that Andrew Lawton made this declaration was beyond the pale. And I will be perfectly honest and say that some of those ministers did indeed fail this test, when they should be on top of their files enough to be able to answer most of these questions without platitudes, but couldn’t. To be perfectly frank, we should be doing this kind of exercise much more frequently because there are plenty of issues that should have been raised weeks or months ago, and only get raised now because it’s a stunt. It should’t need to be this way, but when your leader has decided that the “strategy” is to gather clips rather than raise important issues in your portfolio, then this is what you get.

Let me also reserve a little added scorn for the government for refusing to answer about the fact that they are using their majority to ram through the lawful access bill, and instead turning those questions into opportunities to talk about high-speed rail and infrastructure announcements in Quebec and not the actual issue of lawful access. Guys—you are in the wrong here, and the very least you can do is to provide an explanation as to why you’ve decided to flex your muscles to ram through this obnoxious bill rather than ignore the question entirely. This is not a good look, and frankly, this is the kind of arrogant behaviour that is normally the Liberals’ Achilles heel, and it will bite them in the ass.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Tatiana Auguste for a navy suit with a blueberry collared shirt, and go Ryan Turnbull for a light grey three-piece suit over a crisp white shirt and a navy tie and pocket square. Style citations go out to Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe for a grey jacket over a black shirt, grey and black checked tie and blue jeans, and to Andréanne Larouche for a black dress with white florals under a black sweater.