The benches were again full, and all leaders were again present, though Tony Clement’s desk was noticeably vacant on the front row. Andrew Scheer led off, and in French, he started in yet again on the Statistics Canada data gathering issue, demanding the programme’s cancellation. Justin Trudeau pulled out a script to read that they were concerned with the privacy of Canadians’ data, which is why the Privacy Commissioner was involved. Scheer went again in English, and this time Trudeau didn’t need a script to equate this with the Conservatives’ war with StatsCan over the long-form census. Scheer insisted this was worse than a census, and Trudeau said that he would speak directly to Canadians to assure them that this data was anonymised, subject to strict controls, to ensure that their privacy was maintained. Scheer then switched to the subject of HST and GST being applied to the federal carbon tax, to which Trudeau said this was an attempt to muddy the waters on the plan to put a price on pollution, and by the way, the Conservatives have no intention of putting out a plan to fight climate change. Scheer insisted this was a yes or no question, and Trudeau sermonised about the dangers of climate change. Guy Caron was up next for the NDP, and accused the government of refusing to act on the motion that was adopted yesterday around lapsed veterans’ funding. Trudeau picked up a script to insist that they were spending more for veterans while the Conservatives made cuts. Caron then demanded concrete policies on climate change, but Trudeau was more keen to keep talking about veterans’ funding and listing the actions they’ve taken, before he quickly switched to saying they were taking concrete action on the environment by pricing pollution. Tracey Ramsey was up next to demand that the government refuse to ratify the New NAFTA until the steel and aluminium tariffs were dropped, to which Trudeau quoted the NDP Quebec lieutenant’s praise for the deal. Boulerice, the aforementioned lieutenant, got up next to decry those tariffs, and Trudeau pointed out that the NDP says one thing in the House, and another thing behind closed doors before repeating Boulerice’s quotes.
Tag Archives: Canada Post
QP: Concern trolls and pabulum scripts
Following Monday’s fairly dismal attendance, the benches were full and all of the leaders were present for Question Period today. Andrew Scheer led off, concern trolling about the StatsCan plans to access financial transaction data, and Justin Trudeau read a script about evidence-based policy. Scheer listed off a number of data breaches by the government, to which Trudeau read that the Conservatives were pretending to be opposed to StatsCan data including the long form census, while they would protect the privacy of Canadians. Scheer insisted this wasn’t about evidence but it was about violating fundamental rights, and this time Trudeau reiterated his same responses without a script. Scheer switched to French to ask what duties absent MP Nicola Di Iorio was assigned, to which Trudeau took a script to say that the MP indicated that he would resign in January and that he indicated what he was working on. Scheer tried again in English, and Trudeau read the English lines in response. Guy Caron was up next for the NDP, and he demanded the government support their motion on spending the full Veteran’s Affairs budget (which is a deliberate misunderstanding of what those lapsed funds represent), and Trudeau picked up a script to read the list of things they’ve done for Veterans. Caron switched to French to ask about the accidental underpayment of veterans’ benefits, to which Trudeau read some more pabulum about their increased financial support in the face of Conservative cuts, and added that they were supporting the motion. Daniel Johns stood up to repeat both questions, and Trudeau read the English versions of his same two pabulum scripts.
https://twitter.com/EmmMacfarlane/status/1059895812619038720
These questions about lapses funds at Veterans Affairs deliberately misunderstands how those funds work.
Trudeau just reads some pabulum rather than explaining this. #QP— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) November 6, 2018
QP: “Soviet” StatsCan
With Justin Trudeau off to Churchill and Vancouver, Andrew Scheer also decided to be elsewhere. That left Gérard Deltell to lead off, and he immediately launched into an attack on the Statistics Canada plan to use financial transaction data. François-Philippe Champagne responded with a script about how StatsCan already deals with Canadians’ personal data appropriately, that the Privacy Commissioner was working with them, and that the Conservatives were fear-mongering. Deltell tried again, got the same answer, and when Mark Strahl took over in English, Champagne repeated his spiel in English. Strahl railed about how often there have been personal data beaches by the government, and Champagne responded by reading his points with more vigour. Strahl angrily made a point about consent, and Champagne angrily repeated his own points. Guy Caron was up next for the NDP, and demanded a GHG reduction plan. Dominic LeBlanc responded that hot air about climate change wasn’t coming from his side of the chamber, that they did have a plan that they were implementing. Caron repeated the question in French, and LeBlanc reiterated that they took the issue seriously, unlike the Conservatives. Linda Duncan trolled for support for her motion about tougher GHG targets, but LeBlanc wouldn’t indicate support, but pumped up his own party’s plan instead. Alexandre Boulerice returned Caron’s first question and Quebeckers threatening to take the government to court over climate change, and LeBlanc responded that Quebec has been a leader on climate change.
Oh FFS. Statistical data is not Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Honestly. #QP— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) November 1, 2018
StatsCan collecting data is not “the Liberals snooping” in Canadian’s business. #QP
— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) November 1, 2018
Ron Liepert thinks we’re in the Soviet Union.
Sit down. #QP— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) November 1, 2018
QP: Mendacious privacy concerns
For the first time this week, all of the leaders were present for QP, and Andrew Scheer led off, and he decried the “intrusions” of StatsCan collecting financial transaction data. Justin Trudeau, as he did the last two days, read a script to assure Canadians that the data is anonymised, and that they are working with the Privacy Commissioner. Scheer insisted that this was an extraordinary, and Trudeau dropped the script, and insisted that privacy was being protected. Scheer tried again, ignoring that the data was anonymised, and Trudeau hit back by decrying the Conservatives’ quest to eliminate data and evidence that they find to be inconvenient. Scheer went yet again, and this time Trudeau called it an attempt to sow fear and division. Scheer raised the number of government privacy breaches that resulted in a class-action lawsuit, to which Trudeau paid had his respect for the work of the Privacy Commissioner while the Conservatives continued to play politics over it. Guy Caron was up next for the NDP, demanding web giants be taxed like is happening in the UK and Spain. Trudeau read a script about how they were reviewing the Broadcasting Act and to point out how much they have invested in the cultural sector. Caron switched tracks to complain that CRA was only after going the little guys and not major tax evaders, to which Trudeau read about the investments they’ve made in CRA to combat tax evasion. Nathan Cullen was up next to demand that outstanding by-elections be called, and Trudeau assured him that he would call those by-elections soon. Cullen tried again, and this time, Trudeau praised their new elections legislation.
Head’s up tweeps: I brought @stephenfgordon to #QP today, so I expect a couple of fact checks on the fly.
— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) October 31, 2018
Scheer: They want the power to peer at line-by-line transactions!@stephenfgordon: CRA does that already. #QP
— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) October 31, 2018
QP: StatsCan surveillance?
Justin Trudeau was again in Question Period today, while Andrew Scheer was off to Queen’s Park to meet with Doug Ford, sans media availability. That left Lisa Raitt to lead off, worrying about the Statistics Canada plan to access financial information for their purposes. Trudeau took up a script to read that the data was anonymised and that it was for statistical purposes only, and that they were working with the Privacy Commissioner. Raitt equated this to another issue related to a credit monitoring agency being asked to turn over data. Trudeau took up a second script to read about the sins of the Conservatives when it comes to StatsCan, and assured her that privacy was being protected. Raitt pressed, and Trudeau snarked that the Conservatives remained the party of Stephen Harper. Alain Rayes took over in French, got the same scripted reply, and on a follow-up, Trudeau dropped the script to make the Harper digs. Guy Caron was up next for the NDP, and he asked about the lack of CRA’s progress in going after anyone from the Panama Papers. Trudeau read a script about CRA doing a great job. Caron raised the court case regarding charities before doubling back to lack of progress, and Trudeau dropped the script this time to praise the investment his government made in CRA to recover evaded taxes. Peter Julian took over in English, with added invective, and Trudeau read the English version of his script, and for his final question, Julian demanded by-elections be called, and Trudeau picked up another script to read more about the CRA.
Not sure that StatsCan = government given they are an arm’s length agency. #QP
— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) October 30, 2018
Peter Julian demands by-elections.
Trudeau reads a script about the CRA. #sigh #QP— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) October 30, 2018
QP: Performative carbon outrage
While Justin Trudeau was off in Toronto to sell his climate rebate plan, Andrew Scheer was back in Ottawa, leading the charge against the idea. And to lead off in QP, he disingenuously suggested that a carbon price would have no effect on the climate (not true), and would only raise costs for families. Dominic LeBlanc responded by touting that they have a plan and the Conservatives did not. Scheer forced a tortured trick-or-treat analogy to insist that large emitters were exempt from the plan — which is a lie — and LeBlanc reiterated his points without correcting the record. They went for another round of the same, and then Scheer reached into his bag of greatest hits to demand the true costs of the climate plan, and LeBlanc hit back that Scheer’s lack of plan wouldn’t be revealed until after the election. Guy Caron was up next for the NDP, and he railed about the concessions in the New NAFTA. Marc Garneau praised the agreement and stated that they were continuing to fight the steel and aluminium tariffs. Caron railed about the exemptions on duties for private couriers but not Canada Post, and Garneau insisted that Canadians were satisfied with the agreement. Alexandre Boulerice heard scorn on the government’s climate targets, and LeBlanc assured him that they were living up to their commitments, and noted the Nobel prize for pricing pollution, which is what the government was doing. Boulerice groused about pipelines, and LeBlanc gave more assurances of their plan.
Scheer falsely says that large industrial emitters are exempt from the plan, which I reiterate is a lie.
And Dominic LeBlanc lets the lie go uncorrected on the record. #QP— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) October 23, 2018
QP: Trying to lay an obvious trap
Following statements marking the two fallen soldiers who were killed by terrorists on Canadian soil four years ago, Andrew Scheer led off in French, mini-lectern on desk, reading a demand to deal with returnees from groups like ISIS, and that included demanding support for their opposition motion. Justin Trudeau responded with a statement of support for the police and intelligence services who are looking to bring these people to justice, and that they would support their motion. Scheer switched to English to repeat the demand, saying the government hasn’t done enough, and Trudeau reiterated the response in English. Scheer switched to the Mark Norman case, demanding the records from PMO be released to Norman’s defence, and Trudeau said that he wouldn’t comment on the case as it’s before the courts. Scheer insisted that he didn’t want comment on the case, but wanted to know if he would release the documents, to which Trudeau said that there were all kinds of other things they could ask about but they were fixated on this court case he couldn’t comment on. Scheer took Trudeau up on the invitation to ask about the New NAFTA, and wondered about caps on dairy exports to third countries, but Trudeau simply praised Supply Management and didn’t answer. Guy Caron was up next for the NDP, lamenting that Canada could not meet their GHG targets, to which Trudeau accused the opposition of refusing to accept that the economy and the environment to together. Caron changed to French, and railed about the purchase of the Trans Mountain pipeline, and Trudeau listed investments in environmental protection that they’ve made, and insisted that they would meet their GHG targets. Hélène Laverdière demanded that arms to Saudi Arabia be halted, to which Trudeau picked up a script to read his condemnation for the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, and said that they were working closely with G7 allies. Laverdière switched to English to repeat the demand, and Trudeau read his English version of the script, with new paragraphs on strengthening export permit reviews.
Roundup: Hitting the one-year mark
Yesterday marked the one-year point before the next fixed election date, which is one of those things that I find terribly annoying because in a confidence-based system like ours, fixed election dates are anathema to how our system should work. And instead of providing some illusory “stability” for opposition parties to plan for an election when a government could theoretically call for a “snap” election at any point, all a fixed-election date has managed to do is shift the incentives for governments to back-load their programmes and has made the pre-writ period a year-long campaign (at least), much as the election calendar south of the border has done. So yay for that.
https://twitter.com/PhilippeLagasse/status/1054109748310601728
To mark the occasion, Andrew Scheer held a campaign rally to fire up his troops for said year-long campaign, and with it, he predicted it was going to “get nasty,” and repeated the usual canards that “The Media” and the pundits were on the Liberals’ side (which is both ridiculous and factually untrue, and hey, remember how all of those editorial boards endorsed the Conservatives last election? No?). Of course, it should also be remarked that Scheer has a propensity for untruth that is unparalleled in recent memory in Canadian politics, so his lying about the media should come as no surprise, while he spent the day shitposting disingenuous bullshit about the carbon price framework. But remember, it’s the other guys who will be “nasty.”
The other grating thing about the year-long election campaign is that the obsessive interest in polls will only get worse, as the analyses of polls have already begun, never mind that a year is a very long time in politics, and campaigns matter. And yet, that’s where we are and will continue to be until We The Media start covering actual issues instead of polls in our usual flawed way (followed by the usual lamentation about how the polls didn’t predict the outcome and wondering what happened). Wash, rinse, repeat. It’s going to be a slog of a year.
QP: More Mark Norman insinuations
While Justin Trudeau was in town but not in Question Period, Andrew Scheer was also away for reasons undisclosed. Candice Bergen led off on the Vice-Admiral Mark Norman issue again, demanding that the government turn over recordings of Cabinet meetings where shipbuilding contracts were discussed. Ralph Goodale got up to respond by reminding her that this is before the courts and they can’t discuss it. Bergen raised the spectre that the government was destroying records because of the Ontario Liberals did in relation to the gas plants scandal. Goodale reminded her of the Standing Orders that state that matters before the courts can’t be discussed. Bergen tried again on the same insinuations, and Goodale said that the government follows the law. Gérard Deltell got up to try again in French, and Goodale reminded him about the independence of the courts. Deltell reminded him that Paul Martin released records for the sponsorship scandal, and Goodale cautioned him that commentary like that was not permitted. Guy Caron was up next for the NDP, demanding expungements instead of pardons for former simple possession convictions. Goodale reminded him that the old system didn’t work which was why they changed it, and that they were putting in a new expedited process for those pardons. Caron asked again in French, and Caron reminded him that the expungements for when the law itself was discriminatory such as when it criminalised people for being gay. Hélène Laverdière got up next, and asked the government to apply the Magnitsky Act on Saudi officials responsible for the disappearance and possible death of Jamal Khashoggi. Chrystia Freeland assured her that they were working with partners to call for answers, but when Laverdière asked again in English, bringing up our arms sales, and Freeland gave a more pointed response about the G7 foreign minister’s statement that she led.
Roundup: A “grand coalition” is a terrible idea
Over in New Brunswick, where there has been no movement on whether or not there will be a new government, we are being treated to such views as the suggestion that there should be a “grand coalition” between the Liberals and Progressive Conservatives in the province to…rise above partisan interests? Erm, well, leaving aside the fact that there is a lot of bad blood between the leaders and it’s never going to happen, I find the suggestion in and of itself utterly offensive. Why? Because our system depends on there being an opposition to hold the government to account. That’s the whole point of parliament after all – to hold government to account, and while backbenchers are supposed to play that role as well as the opposition, in practice it often doesn’t work that well because the incentives are rarely there when there are Cabinet posts to distribute and the fact that we’ve bastardized our leadership system so as to neuter caucus’ ability to hold their leaders to account. Such a “grand coalition” would mean that the province has an opposition comprised of two three-member parties, which would have to fight over who gets to be the Official Opposition, and would have a hard time doing the job of holding a massive coalition government to account.
Now, I will add that New Brunswick and its peculiar political culture once returned a legislature that was 100 percent Liberal and had zero opposition members, and they managed to make it work. Sort of. But it’s not a situation that anyone should want to repeat, because it’s a Very Bad Thing for democracy and the practice of Responsible Government. Opposition plays an important role, and I know that people don’t like it because the adversarial nature can become both theatrical (witness Question Period), but if members don’t take that theatricality to heart, it can become embittering – especially if there are few avenues for cross-partisan bonding. I don’t know enough about how that part of the political culture works in New Brunswick, but the diminishing avenues for such bonding in Ottawa has created a less collegial parliament than it used to be in years past, and that’s a problem.
https://twitter.com/SkinnerLyle/status/1052295726477312000
Meanwhile, the lieutenant governor is straying dangerously out of her lane in issuing statements warning the parties to come to a solution because she doesn’t think the province wants a new election, and that means also finding a Speaker. This shouldn’t be public, and I get that some people want transparency, but she shouldn’t be doing this – especially because it gives people the idea that she can boss around the premier, which she can’t actually do unless we want to undo 170 years of Responsible Government in this country. It’s especially bad if the parties are trying to play the LG and trying to force her hand in some way – which is the kind of gutless manoeuvre that we should expect from Canadian politicians who don’t like to be seen to be making unpopular decisions and will try to foist the blame onto someone else. This whole situation is distasteful, and everyone needs to grow up and behave like adults.
https://twitter.com/PhilippeLagasse/status/1052316915140423680
https://twitter.com/PhilippeLagasse/status/1052317982884425729
https://twitter.com/SkinnerLyle/status/1052335901366476800