Tag Archives: Forestry

QP: Another round of same “gas tax” nonsense again

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The PM was in town and in the building, but was meeting with premiers instead of being at QP, which was mighty unusual for a Wednesday, but that’s Mark Carney for you. Pierre Poilievre was also absent, so it was up to Gérard Deltell to lead off in French, where he listed the nonsense “hidden taxes” as it relates to food price inflation, and François-Philippe Champagne responded with praise for their GST rebate and the other investments promised in the same announcement. Deltell reiterated the nonsense about the “gas tax,” to which Champagne praised the government’s actions, while the Conservatives only have rhetoric. Tim Uppal took over in English to make the specious arguments, and Julie Dabrusin noted that Poilievre represents one of the biggest canola-growing ridings in the country, and noted how much they stand to benefit from clean fuel regulations and biofuels. On  another go-around, Champagne admonished them to support their benefits. Lianne Rood read another tired script of the same, and Patty Hajdu noted that the Conservatives liked to raise the plight of food banks, they are now fighting against supports for them. Rood accused the government of “gaslighting” (that’s not what that means, guys), and Hajdu raised the other support for families like child care and the school food programme. 

Yves-François Blanchet rose for the Bloc, and said that the promised lifting of Chinese tariffs on pork has not happened, and worried the government created false hopes. Anita Anand said they were working with partners and diversifying trade relationships. Blanchet was not mollified by this answer, and demanded more specifics. Anand said that discussions were ongoing with China, including pork, and they they are working in Canada’s interests. Blanchet then wondered about action on forestry, and Champagne said they are working with the industry and have invested hundreds of millions of dollars.

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QP: Back to back-patting about their announcement

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The first day back after the winter break, and unusual, the PM was no present, and was instead making a trip to Toronto to go soothe Doug Ford’s wounded feelings after the EV agreement with China. Pierre Poilievre was present, and he led off in French with some misleading and poorly thought-out concern about food price inflation, claiming it couldn’t be external factors before demanding an end to “inflationary deficits.” François-Philippe Champagne stood up to loudly proclaim their new GST credit for Canadians. Poilievre claimed this new rebate wouldn’t pay for a single grocery shop, and again demanded and end to supposed “inflationary deficits.” This time Steven MacKinnon wished him well in advance of his leadership review before praising their bill, C-15 and called for the Conservatives to support it. Poilievre repeated his first question in English, and MacKinnon repeated his same response in English. Poilievre again raised the so-called “hidden taxes,” and Champagne repeated his praise for the GST rebate. Poilievre tried again, and Patty Hajdu essentially dared the Conservatives to vote against these supports. Poilievre insisted this was all the cause of “hidden taxes,” but said he would let the rebate pass. Champagne again got up and took Poilievre at his word in his letter about fast-tracking measures to help Canadians.

“Where are you running next time?” A Liberal backbencher heckles. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-01-26T19:22:05.773Z

Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and she denounced the version of history that Carney recounted in his speech in Quebec City. MacKinnon praised the fact that anglophones and Francophones built the country. Normandin listed more attacks against Francophones in history, and MacKinnon pointed to his own family history to praise the “mutual respect” and cooperation between linguistic communities. Normandin reminded them of the burning of the pre-Confederation Parliament rather than compensating French Canadian farmers, and Champagne tried to change the topic back to their GST rebate.

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Roundup: Getting played by your leakers

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The Department of National Defence is investigating the leak of selective information by F-35 proponents that made that fighter look like a clear winner in the competition with the SAAB Gripen-E fighter, and the journalists who accepted the leak and wrote that story is getting a bit huffy about it. His story on the investigation quotes a Quebec journalists’ union about how important it is that journalists “do their work freely,” and that such a big purchase deserves scrutiny. This kind of self-righteousness is not unexpected.

That said, he also quoted security expert Wesley Wark who basically took him to the woodshed because the leak was quite obviously propaganda as it was selective, they didn’t provide information on the criteria that the scores were based on (just that it looked like the F-35s were the clear winner with no actual context), and this should have been completely obvious as part of the original story. It’s no secret that there is a cadre within the Canadian Forces that is heavily invested in acquiring as much American military tech as possible, in part because they operate so closely with American forces, but also because they are socialised into believing that it’s the very best and they want the very best, so they have been doing everything they can to manipulate the purchase of these fighters from the very beginning, starting with the Harper government who credulously just said “okay, we’ll sole-source it” on the military’s recommendation in the first instance, before it turned into something of a scandal because of the escalating price tag. (This is not how you do civilian control, guys). These same military folks seem to think that the Americans will never turn on us, and that Trump’s threats are not to be taken seriously.

I should be surprised—but really, I’m not—that the journalist in question allowed himself to be played like this, and clearly it did the job the leakers wanted because you had a bunch of pundits take the story to proclaim that the F-35 is the fighter for Canada, hands-down. That’s ultimately why I find the self-righteous response to a leak investigation to be…funny? Sad? Either way, I’m not a defence expert, but I do read and I do talk to people a lot, and I could see clearly that what got leaked was a frame-up job, and the journalist who wrote the original piece should have seen that as well, and done a better job of canvassing dissent to the leak rather than seeking out sources to confirm what the leakers were selling. But he didn’t, and so he got the head of a journalists’ union to get self-righteous on his behalf. It’s not great for the trust in the institution of journalism if we let ourselves get played like this.

Ukraine Dispatch

An underwater Ukrainian drone struck and disabled a Russian submarine docked at a Black Sea naval base (though Russia denies this). European leaders are meeting in The Hague to launch an International Claims Commission to compensate Ukraine for hundreds of billions of dollars in damages from Russia’s attacks and war crimes.

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QP: Debating whether the minister read the contract

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The prime minister was indeed present for the penultimate Wednesday QP of the year, as were the other leaders. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and he once again led off with swipes at Marc Miller before taking his “fed up” line and applying it to the cost of food, and wondered how many people the prime minister would send to food banks. Mark Carney said that inflation is lower—at 2.2%—and salaries are on the rise, while joblessness is down and the economy is good. Poilievre took this and said that Carney is “happy” with grocery prices, and noted how much grocery prices rose up, blaming government spending. Carney said that Poilevre was ignoring that this was a “new” government that created the strongest economy the G7. (Erm… Really?) Poilievre switched to English to return to the Food Price report and the doubling of it over the past decade, blaming “inflationary deficits” and hidden taxes, and demanded to know how much groceries would increase next year. Carney wanted to the the “numbers straight” and praised economic growth, wages growing faster than inflation. Poilievre gave the usual mocking about a Canadians not having so good, and asked about the food price report. Carney praised the tax cuts that the conservatives voted against, and patted himself on the back for the budget. Poilievre then raised the Algoma steel layoffs and the fact that the loans didn’t come out with job guarantees. Carney intoned that these are difficult times, and quoted the CEO saying that things would have been worse without government support, and that they were able to save two-thirds of their jobs. Poilievre mocked about keeping the CEO happy, and said that he got paid to ship jobs south. Carney quoted Doug Ford about how much worse it would have been without supports.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and he worried about Steven Guilbeault’s departure, and wondered who would speak for Quebec’s language and culture. Carney pointed to their 44 Liberal MPs from the province, and promised to protect Quebec’s language and culture. Blanchet took swipes at Carney not living up to his promises on the environment, and Carney insisted he was living up to their climate goals, and that they were getting investment in clean energy, nuclear, and carbon capture. Blanchet mocked the notion that nuclear is clean energy, and demanded the government give up his oil agenda and return to the climate agenda to care about Quebec. Carney intoned that they were living up to the climate agenda that included $4 billion in the budget for Hydro Quebec.

Carney then took his leave, to more Conservative jeers.

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QP: Credit cards and a prima donna PBO

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The PM was in the building, but was entertaining the King and Queen of Sweden, so he was not present for QP today. Pierre Poilievre was, however, and he led off in French, declaring that Canadians needed an “affordable budget,” but that the prime minster was “creating more inflation,” and cited the PBO on the size of the deficit—ignoring that that’s not what is driving inflation, and it’s really not what is causing food price inflation. Poilievre demanded the government account for the extra $5000 in inflation the budget would create (huh?), and François-Philippe Champagne said he was glad that Poilievre read the summary of the budget, but listed the things that they voted against. Poilievre rhetorically asked what Canadians were getting for the prime minister’s travel, listing places where tariffs had increased. Champagne retorted that Canadians were wondering how the Canadians dared to vote against Canada. Poilievre switched to English, repeated his lines about the size of the deficit and what the PBO said, and again wondered how single moms and seniors can pay another five grand in inflation (which, again, is not how inflation works). Champagne deployed his “take no lessons” line, and listed the things the Conservatives voted against. Poilievre mocked that he didn’t think anyone could cram that many slogans into an answer, and this was coming from him, before he listed the drop in housing starts. Gregor Robertson said that he was ignoring the year-to-date figures, which said that housing starts were up five percent (which is also pretty selective as the biggest markets are down). Poilievre then retired to the question about the trips Carney took and the tariffs that increased from those counties as a result. Maninder Sidhu got up to praise the good news of Germany buying a billion dollars in military equipment from Canada. Poilievre broke the prop rules to show a blank list of tariffs that were reduced, and Sidhu read a script about Poilievre referring to non-oil exports as “pixie dust.”

Christine Normandin rose for the Bloc, and worried about TVA and the layoffs they are facing, demanding federal actions. Steven Guilbeault said it was incomprehensible that the Bloc would raise this while they voted against the budget and the historic investments in culture therein. Normandin tried to play this as Ottawa not caring about their television, and Guilbeault again listed the cultural investments the Bloc voted against. Martin Champoux took over to say there was nothing for private broadcasters in the budget, and again demanded federal action. Steven MacKinnon gave a similar response about the investments in Quebec that the Bloc voted against.

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QP: Executive bonuses vs sacrifices

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The Nation’s Capital was under a rainfall warning as MPs gathered in the West Block for QP, with the PM still in South Korea. Pierre Poilievre was absent, leaving it to Andrew Scheer to lead off, and he declared that elites have never had it so good while people are being asked to make sacrifices. To illustrate, he noted that CMHC paid out $30 million in executive bonuses rather than providing down payments for young Canadians. Rechie Valdez responded by reading the good news about cutting the GST on houses for first-time homebuyers, along with other housing programmes. Scheer insisted that if flushing billions through big bureaucracies worked, they would not be in this situation, and again went to the notion that they are just funding big bonuses while youth have nothing left to give. Patty Hajdu praised the investments they have been making in skills training for youth. Jasraj Hallan took over to peevishly push the same narrative that “insiders” are getting rich while youth are being asked to sacrifice, and Valdez got back up to mouth the falsehood that Poilievre only built six houses as he was minister responsible. Hallan got back up to proclaim that the only people who have it good now are the prime minister and his elitist insiders. Hajdu got back up to talk about her meeting with her PEI counterpart to deliver for Canadians. Luc Berthold then took over to deliver the same script in French, and this time Joël Lightbound delivered the indignant response that the the Conservatives just vote against help for Canadians. Berthold raised a news story about pregnant women cutting back on protein, and Lightbound repeated that it was astounding that the Conservatives vote against programmes that people need.

Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and raised the anniversary of the 1995 referendum, and decried the federal Clarity Act preventing a democratic decision (which his not true), and asked it to be repealed. Steven Guilbeault said that Quebec elected twice as many Liberals as Bloc, and that they don’t want another referendum, but rather to build the country with their upcoming budget. Normandin again dared the government to repeal the Clarity Act, and Guilbeault again insisted that nobody is talking about another referendum. Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe took over to again make the same demand, and Guilbeault noted it was interesting that the Quebec government was tabling legislation with no Indigenous consultation, which is not reconciliation. 

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QP: Scattershot demands for an “affordable budget”

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It was a rare PM-less Wednesday, as Mark Carney had a full day planned of meeting with industry leaders in South Korea, while back at home, the rest of the party leaders were all present and ready to go. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and he lamented “ballooning” debts and deficits, tied this to food bank usage, and wanted the government to work with them on an “affordable budget.” Steven MacKinnon said that Poilievre was demanding things he couldn’t even put in his own budget, and worried they wanted a Christmas election. Poilievre said that people shouldn’t have to choose between an expensive budget or an expensive election, and then falsely tied the industrial carbon price to food price inflation. MacKinnon said that they have affordable measures like the school food programme which the Conservatives voted against. Poilievre switched to English, to falsely claim that deficits caused inflation, and demanded the government eliminate the imaginary “hidden taxes on food.” MacKinnon assured him it would be an affordable budget and wondered if Poilievre would order his “troops” to vote for it. Poilievre repeated his claim to “positive collaboration” with the falsehood about the industrial carbon price. MacKinnon jibed that Poilievre’s imaginary taxes were only matched by his imaginary friends in caucus. Poilievre concern trolled about the Food Banks Canada report and re-read the anecdote from it, and again demanded an “affordable budget.” Patty Hajdu read a competing quote from the CEO of Food Banks Canada in support of federal programmes. Poilievre claimed that these programmes only feed bureaucracies and lobbyists and that things got worse, and repeated his “affordable budget” line. Hajdu said that it was clear that Poilievre was aiming for a Christmas election rather than help for Canadians.

Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, even though Yves-François Blanchet had delivered a member’s statement moments before, and accused the government of preferring an election to consulting with the opposition on the budget. MacKinnon listed off members of the Bloc he’s met with, and offered to meet with her as well. Normandin listed off Bloc demands and said this was preferable to an election. MacKinnon wondered why the Bloc was trying to negotiate with non-negotiable demands. Gabriel Ste-Marie blamed the federal government for the housing crisis, and scapegoated immigrants, before demanding more unconditional transfers to Quebec. Gregor Robertson responded that they were focused on homelessness first and foremost.

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QP: Stacking false premises to claim a cover-up

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The PM was jetting from Singapore to Busan, South Korea, while things rolled along back home. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and he returned to the Food Banks Canada report, blaming “inflationary” deficits for food insecurity, and demanded a budget to make life affordable. Steve MacKinnon said that they would do that, and wanted the Conservatives’ support for it. Poilievre said that past budgets “ballooned” the deficit and again drmwndrd an affordability budget. MacKinnon noted that Food Banks Canada supported their measures in the budget, and hoped that the Conservatives weren’t aiming for a Christmas election. Poilievre switched to English to repeat the same question with added embellishment, and this time Patty Hajdu got up to read a quote from the CEO of Food Banks Canada in support of their programmes. Poilievre dismissed this as saying that if it were true, the demand would not travel increased, and Hajdu responded with incredulity that Poilievre dismissed the CEO of Food Banks Canada as not knowing what she is talking about. Poilievre doubled down on an anecdote from the report, and Anna Gainey quoted again from the report that praised federal supports and noted that the Conservatives voted against them. Poilievre again insisted that this couldn’t be true, and he again demanded an “affordable budget.” Hajdu retorted that either Poilievre wants a Christmas election, or he wants to inter what is in the report.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and he worried about the trade war, and demanded the government restore “decent relations” with the U.S. (How?!) Dominic LeBlanc gave some bland assurances of work with his counterparts in the U.S., before reciting the line about building up the Canadian economy. Blanchet wondered what they should tell investors given the uncertainty, and LeBlanc said that the government is there to support them and to invest. Blanchet was incredulous at the notion that these businesses need to wait, and LeBlanc said that the government has cooperated with provinces and industry leaders about what more can be done to support workers and industries.

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QP: Not taking yes for an answer about Stellantis

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While the PM was in town on a rainy Monday, he was not in QP today, nor were some of the other leaders. Pierre Poilievre was, however, and he led off in French, blaming government deficits for lines at food banks and rising housing costs, and demanded that the government reverse these “inflationary” policies in the budget. (Never mind that inflation is currently in the target band). Steven MacKinnon said that they would be talking about this in the coming weeks, but that last week, Poilievre questioned the independence of the RCMP, and that he had the opportunity to apologies, and would never. Poilievre would not, saying the Liberals were trying to distract from inflation with their “corruption,” and and listed the false “taxes” that he claimed were raising prices, and demanded they be lifted. MacKinnon again gave Poilievre the change to apologise for his remarks. Poilievre switched to English to repeat his claims that government spending is driving people to poverty, and demanded a cap to the “inflationary deficit” and the “insane” taxes on groceries that don’t exist. MacKinnon, still in French, said that Poilievre was making stuff up in order to change the channel. Poilievre then pivoted, and demanded the government release the unredacted Stellantis contract so that they could see the job guarantees. Mélanie Joly said that Stellanits’ actions are unacceptable, and that they agreed to the production of documents at committee. Poilievre demanded specifics about the job guarantees in the contract. Joly said that she just met with the Canadian head of Stellantis to impress upon them that the jobs must remain in Brampton. Poilievre demanded more specifics about the job guarantees, and Joly said they were putting full pressure on the company.

Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and raised a particular “hate-preacher” making a lecture tour in Canada, and demanded an end of the religious exemption to hate speech. Steven Guilbeault said that any hate speech is unacceptable, and they will use tools to fight it. Normandin repeated her demand again, and Guilbeault raised their plan to fight online hate speech. Rhéal Fortin made the same demand one more time, and Guilbeault praised Bill C-9 on hate speech, and said the government was proactive.

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Roundup: Dollarama Trumpism back on blast

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I regret to inform you that Pierre Poilieve is back on his MAGA-lite™ bullshit, and he’s going after DEI in order to “bring back merit.” It’s Dollarama Trumpism where they think that they can harness the “good parts only” energy of authoritarian populism without the overt racism—but they’re still going to wink to that racism. And it’s been pretty relentless, whether it’s deciding to target “DEI” or “wokeness,” the recent decision to go hard after immigration—sorry, “Liberal immigration policy” *wink*— or birthright citizenship. I’m not sure who they think they’re fooling, other than maybe that segment of the party’s base that Poilievre wants to keep on-side ahead of his leadership review.

https://bsky.app/profile/emmettmacfarlane.com/post/3m3bgx3sgek2d

The thing with insisting you want to focus on “merit” is that we have empirical proof that “merit” is only ever applied to straight white men who don’t have to fairly compete with women or minorities. They can’t get a fair shake because of ingrained prejudices, but if they get their positions entirely based on merit, they are dismissed as “DEI hires.” (It’s even more hilarious when women in the Conservative caucus insist that they got their positions due to merit, but any women in the Liberal Cabinet are just “DEI hires.”) All of this is entirely well-founded, but they have decided that they’d rather wink to racists and claim that they’re doing it to avoid “bloated bureaucracies” and “checkboxes” when it really just boils down to racism/misogyny/homophobia, every single time, but they insist on lying to themselves about it.

Hits harder than any legacy media outlet.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-10-15T14:37:40.489Z

Meanwhile, Poilievre is ramping up his “get out of the way” bullshit, and has his caucus not only repeat it to absurd lengths, but also try to force it into situations that don’t make any sense. For example, one Conservative MP was on Power & Politics and trying to insist that if government “got out of the way” that we would have spent the past decade building critical mineral mines and pipelines to tidewater and that would have given us leverage over Trump. And while David Cochrane pushed back on this, none of it makes any sense because you would think that American dependence on our oil/aluminium/steel/softwood lumber/electricity would already give us leverage, but that doesn’t actually matter with Trump. Nobody was in a rush to build pipelines to tidewater because the Americans were a captive market. We weren’t in a rush to build critical mineral mines because the market was being well-supplied by China, and nobody builds mines overnight. And frankly, putting aside the fact that these projects were in fact advancing, this notion that governments should just abandon all environmental regulation, property rights, or Indigenous rights and title for the sake of letting industry loose, so that they could line their own pockets while forcing the environmental and social devastation in their wake onto governments to take care of—at a time when CO2emissions are spiking because of wildfires—is frankly just incompetence and lunacy.

I mean, who cares about things like the environment, or property rights, or the rights of Indigenous people whose land these projects are on? We should just let it all burn and watch the dollars flow in (to the pockets of a few select rich people).

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-10-16T02:31:38.710Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Russian attacks hit power infrastructure in seven regions across Ukraine. Russian drones are getting more precise, and are increasingly targeting Ukraine’s rail infrastructure.

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