The PM was present for a second time this week, and on a Wednesday no less, which might actually be a first for this prime minister. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and he wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving, but for many families it won’t be happy for many families because the costs of a Thanksgiving dinner has gone up by ten percent, per Dalhousie University, and he wondered when Canadians would be able to have an “affordable Thanksgiving dinner.” Mark Carney echoed the well-wishes for Thanksgiving, and also made note of the previous members’ statement about the anniversary of October 7th, and closed by insisting that they have made life more affordable for families. Poilievre says the prime minister is disconnected from reality, not only with the cost of food but also housing, and cited a Habitat for Humanity study about Canadians being twice as likely as the average in 22 countries about giving up on the dream of buying a house. Carney pointed out that 12 million families received the enhanced GST benefit cheques, and that they are building affordable housing. Poilievre switched to English to again wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving, and repeated the same Dalhousie statistic. Carney repeated the well-wishes and that 12 million received the benefit, and that 22 million had their taxes cut, in addition to other government programmes. Poilievre insisted that Carney is out of touch and “you are out of money,” sounding like he was directing that to the Speaker, before he repeated the Habitat for Humanity statistic. Carney tried to insist that he “just got here,” and after the uproar, corrected to say he’s only been here eighteen months compared to Poilievre’s 240 months, and patted himself on the back for announcements made. Poilievre derided this and insisted the government has done nothing, and Carney touted rent reductions and share of income spent on housing falling every single month. Poilievre insisted that nothing is actually getting built, to which Carney made another joke about just having got here, before he touted some economic good news statistics.
Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and he decried that the only priority of the government is the west coast pipeline as a sop to Alberta separatists, which might only fire up Quebec sovereigntists. Carney patted himself on the back for the Churchill Falls agreement, and insisted the pipeline was for Canada’s sovereignty and independence. Blanchet needled that the biggest project in Quebec is actually Newfoundland, and that the beneficiaries of the pipeline are American owners. Carney started that Churchill Falls contains $200 billion in investments for Quebec. Blanchet then pointed out that the government is starving the arts and not helping forestry or aluminium, but they have all kinds of money for this pipeline. Carney again insisted that they are investing in Quebec, and listed some additional projects including high speed rail.
Round two, and Poilievre got back to complain that Carney was out of touch because he’s never here—got warned by the Speaker—and disputed the housing affordability issue (McKelvie: We saw an increase in housing sales in Ontario and rents coming down for 24 consecutive months), he then complained about a court ruling on provision of safe drugs in BC (Fraser: This is in the appeals period and the independent prosecution service will make their own decision), he then lied about MAiD for mental illness (Fraser: Thanks for starting that conversation but we announced we are excluding that and will put forward legislation to do just that), grocery prices as it pertains to Thanksgiving as prices hadn’t stabilised three Thanksgiving ago (Champagne: You just vote against supports for Canadians), gave some nonsense about diesel prices (Hodgson: Refining is up sixteen percent prices did come down a little; Champagne: Vote for C-38).
Gabriel Ste-Marie worried about widespread homelessness in Quebec, and demanded the federal government support the PQ government in this (Lightbound: We plan to work together; Desrochers: We have been in close contact on the ground and are hoping the province will also step up on mental health and addictions).
Shuvaloy Majumdar recited nonsense about diesel (Hodgson: We have already reduced prices by 25 cents per litre; Long: Hooray for the enhanced GST credit), Tim Uppal read the same (Long: Same answer), Sikhman Gill tried again (McKnight: We have reduced fuel prices and provided the enhanced GST credit), Eric Lefebvre read the script en français (Gobeil: We have always been there for farmers and you should support Bill C-38).
Round three saw questions on parole cases (Sahota: This is a horrible case, and we are reviewing the Act, but the law was created by the Conservatives; MacKinnon: You didn’t support our tough-on-crime laws; Anandasangaree: We are working with families and victims to strengthen the parole process and this shouldn’t be politicised), paper straws for cocaine in prisons (Anandasangaree: We are concerned but Correctional Services is independent and they are pausing this implementation; The parole board is postponing a decision you raised earlier), overdoses (Michel: I am working cooperatively with provinces to help those in distress), cuts of correctional staff (Anandasangaree: You made this up; Canadian prisons are among the safest in the world), LNG-2 not using Canadian steel (Hodgson: The modules are not made in Canada because we don’t make that kind of steel; We did talk to steel companies and they said they can’t service those orders; Solomon: You are talking down the country; MAiD for mental illness (Fraser: This is a serious conversation and there is no access today, and we will pass the bill before March of next year), the Bank of Canada security officer strike (Hajdu: We have prohibited the use of replacement workers, and they can file a complaint if they thing this was done).
The “Liberal parole” versus “This is a Conservative law” sniping in #QP is absolutely disgusting. Everyone should be ashamed of this performance—and it is absolutely a performance.
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-10-07T18:59:07.457Z
Overall, it was inevitable that the Thanksgiving questions started today, but they weren’t quite as obnoxious as previous years, where fliers would be erased (and called out as props) and figures read out about how much individual items costs, and how outrageous it was. This year, however, most of the questions were couched in terms of the Conservatives’ ridiculous “emergency fuel relief” motion, which would not do anything about those prices because the real cause of the vast majority of food price increases is climate change and nobody wants to spell that out. In fact, Carney could have pointed this our, as could François-Philippe Champagne, but they didn’t, and just patted themselves on the back instead. This was of course because the Conservatives’ supply day motion on their “relief” was being voted on after QP, as was that Conservative private members’ bill restricting MAiD, which is also why we got blatantly dishonest questions on that as well.
Otherwise, I was very nearly apoplectic about the absolutely disgusting questions and responses on parole, where the Conservatives called it “Liberal parole” and Ruby Sahota responded by saying the Corrections and Conditional Release Act was last updated by the Conservatives, so they should own the issue. Even more disgusting was the little pantomime that Frank Caputo engaged in trying to call out the prime minister directly, which earned him a warning from the Speaker, but he got the clip he wanted, which is why these theatrics keep happening. It’s gross and everyone needs to stop this behaviour, because politicizing these issues is very, very bad for the rule of law and administration of justice, but nobody cares when they’re only interested in scoring cheap points.
Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Fraser Tolmie for a navy three-piece suit with a crisp white shirt and a dark red tie, and to Madeleine Chenette for a navy jacket with a windowpane pattern over a light grey collared shirt and black slacks. Style citations go out to Helena Konanz for a black collared shirt with a busy cream pattern across it over a black undershirt with black slacks, all under a dark grey sleeveless long jacket, and to Scott Reid for an otherwise fine grey suit over a blue and red gingham jacket with a matching pocket square and a black tie.