The PM was off to New York, while Pierre Poilievre was also absent. That led Pierre Paul-Hus to lead off in French, and he touted the supposed Conservative Economic Action Plan™, and demanded that the government adopt it. François-Philippe Champagne responded by listing off the second quarter growth numbers from other G7 countries, and the fact that Canada was at the top of the list. Paul-Hus said that this wouldn’t help affordability, and Champagne insisted that they are taking action, and demanded the opposition support their bill to formally lower the gas excise tax. Melissa Lantsman took over in English to read a couple of sob stories before demanding the government adopt their plan. Champagne trotted out the “take no lessons” line before again exhorting them to support the gas tax bill. Lantsman claimed that the Conservatives identified $150 billion in wasteful spending, and Champagne retorted by wondering why the Conservatives voted against affordability measures. John Brassard then got up, and read more sob stories, but in a sanctimonious tone, and this time, Gregor Robertson got up to tout that rental costs have come down and they are helping with the rental housing boom. Brassard tried again, and Robertson praised the enhanced GST credit. 

Yves-François Blanchet rose for the Bloc, and denounced the omnibus bill tabled yesterday as destroying what was built around labour and the environment. Dominic LeBlanc dismissed this as exaggeration while the country is in crisis. Blanchet tried again, and took a swipe at the Liberals for their swing between what they supported under Trudeau versus Carney, to which Steven MacKinnon shrugged this off, and dismissively said that they would have a chance to debate this. Blanchet worried that all climate measures are being scrapped and handed over to American-owned oil companies. LeBlanc listed Quebec projects the government is supporting.

Round two, and John Barlow raised another sob story to take a swipe about affordability (Champagne: We have the enhanced GST credit and we are suspending the gas tax; MacDonald: There are geopolitical issues rising prices while we are doing what we can in Canada), Richard Bragdon worried about a mill closure in his riding (Long: Our thoughts are with the workers, and we are working with the province and industry), the very masculine Jacob Mantle decried lower housing starts (Robertson: We are seeing success with agreements on the ground; This is what the Housing Accelerator Fund is intended to do), and Grant Jackson read another sob story (Solomon: We are supporting Canadians in the middle of this trade war).

Martin Champoux demanded the government reimplement a digital services tax and streaming payments (Miller: We will always stand up for the French language and culture; Only the Bloc could claim we’re not doing enough when we increased funding to record levels).

Sandra Cobena read another constituent sob story (Church: We are supporting Canadians in this time and I hope he can access our benefits), Scot Davidson worried about another constituent’s story (Blois: You voted against measures to help people), and Gérard recited a sob story en français (Bendayan: We have established several programmes to help Canadians and your party voted against them; Hooray for the investors who came to Toronto last week).

Round three saw questions on crime (Anandasangaree: We have taken unprecedented amounts of legislative changes; Here are some statistics about how crime is down; Fraser: We already passed new bail laws), some more sob stories (Belanger: Some rambling about the changed seating on the other side of the aisle; McKnight: Canadians are facing hard times, so we have programmes to help; McLean: We have a new support in your region that you have ignored), high-risk offenders being released in the community (Sarai: These matters are decided by parole officers), a non-citizen sentencing consideration (Fraser: We have advanced a series of reforms but the judicial system must remain independent), fraudulent immigration cases (Diab: We work with security partners and provinces), tax avoidance (Bendayan: We are working on this because it’s a matter close to the prime minister’s heart, and hooray for topping the G7 growth list), the labour disruption at the Bank of Canada (Church: We will always protect the rights of workers), and who asked the government for the labour code changes (MacKinnon: It helps parties come to agreements).

Jeff Kibble thinks he’s hilarious.Rest assured, he is not. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-09-22T18:58:00.995Z

Overall, it was not a terribly exciting day, but it became quite obvious that the Conseratives’ plan was to use these totally not-made-up sob stories by supposed constitutents about how hard they have it, and to then demand that the government adopt the Conservative Economic Action Plan™, whose primary aim is to just try and trickle down harder with tax cuts at the top, and the decimation of environmental regulations (which the Liberals are now handily doing a pretty good job of themselves). For all of the urgency around the trade war that the Conservatives demanded Parliament be recalled early, the topic didn’t come up at all today, being the mere day two of the new sitting. I know that the Conservatives are trying to continue to make “affordability” their issue, but this particular tactic came off looking forced and disingenous, like that they picked out a number of white-sounding names from a baby name book and attached them to some pretty standard tales of woe, and called it a day.

Otherwise, I found that there were only a couple of genuine exchanges, one of which was Richard Bragdon talking about the mill closure in his riding, and the government talking about how they were in consultation with the members, as well as the province and union about next steps, and that was something I would certainly like to see more of on both sides.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Mélanie Joly for a cream-coloured lapel-less jacket with a banded collar over a white collared top and white slacks, and to Scott Reid for a dark blue checkerboard suit over a light blue gingham shirt with a salmon-coloured tie and pocket square. Style citations go out to Yves-François Blanchet for a taupe jacket with a light blue windowpane pattern over a light blue shirt with a matching tie and pocket square with black slacks, and to Marie-Gabrielle Ménard for a burnt orange belted dress with half-sleeves and some kind of pussy bow at the collar.