The Liberals took to the airwaves and social media Tuesday and Wednesday to denounce Conservatives as “conspiracy theorists.” Pictured: House Speaker Greg Fergus. Photo Credit: Parliament of Canada.
Exchanges in Parliament’s main theatre, the House of Commons, devolved this week into a mayhem more suited for under a circus big top. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre engaged in a disrespectful partisan slugfest and the degradation was furthered by the clownish stumbling of the Speaker of the House. The Trudeau-Poilievre non sequitur argument and the ensuing sideshows throughout this week sadly reflect the deteriorated state of Canada’s democratic institution and its elected representatives to debate the many serious issues of the land.
The climax of this tragi-comedy was during a heated exchange in Tuesday’s Question Period, when Speaker Greg Fergus expelled Poilievre for unparliamentary language. Most of the Tory caucus followed their leader out of the House leaving the Liberals’ heckles to echo about the vacated chamber.
Minutes prior, Poilievre had asked Trudeau to explain why the federal government had yet to act on a B.C. government’s “urgent” request to end the federal-provincial pilot program relating to hard drugs decriminalization. In response to this serious issue, Trudeau launched into a series of insults. He excitedly accused Poilievre of “shameful, spineless leadership” and suggested he was sympathetic to white nationalist groups. (Over the weekend Trudeau had been making great noise in CBC News interviews and in Liberal fundraising appeals about Poilievre courting members of a group from Diagolon – an internet meme country). There was no attempt to address the issue raised by Poilievre. Instead, Trudeau chose Tuesday Question Period and a question about B.C.’s drug program to throw his Diagolon haymaker.
The Conservative leader countered the insults by rephrasing his lead question and calling Trudeau a “wacko” and the Liberals’ hard drugs policy “wacko.” Fergus asked Poilievre to withdraw his adjective. Poilievre replaced “wacko” with the word “radical.” Fergus rejected this adjective and asked Poilievre to withdraw it. Poilievre replied with the word “extremist.” Fergus rejected this and it was then that he directed Poilievre to leave the House of Commons. So, ended the centre ring circus act, with Trudeau smiling like a Cheshire Cat and Liberal MPs braying across the floor of the Commons.
On Wednesday, Fergus rejected formal calls from both the Conservatives and Bloc Quebecois to resign due to his bias, partisan actions. Bloc House leader Alain Therrien commented: “Mr. Fergus has had difficulty maintaining peace in Parliament for a long time. We think the Speaker should leave. The recent events confirm that position.” Conservative MP Michael Cooper was more pointed in saying: “He should resign, he’s a disgrace.”
Poilievre forcibly stated in Wednesday morning media that he had no regrets over his language in the House. In a CP24 News interview he stated: “I can’t think of any other word to describe what he [Trudeau] is doing in our communities … his policies are wacko. Hiking the carbon tax to 61 cents a litre: wacko. Doubling housing costs: wacko. Doubling the national debt and causing the worst inflation in 40 years is wacko. And I’m just calling it as it is.”
The Liberals took to the airwaves and social media Tuesday and Wednesday to denounce Conservatives as “conspiracy theorists” unfit to lead given their support for the people of Diagolon. In their excitement over Diagolon, there was also lip service paid in support of the beleaguered Speaker.
What was lost in this nonsensical episode was a reply to British Columbians about the nightmares they are currently coping with in their streets, playgrounds, and hospitals. In fact, while the Diagolon-wacko standoff has been unfolding, the Trudeau government and much of the legacy media have allowed many serious national issues to go unreported. Trudeau, his ministers, and their sponsored legacy media have been too preoccupied with Diagolon and slurring the Conservatives.
There are many concerns upstaged by Ottawa’s clown show. Consider these four economic issues from this week.
On Wednesday night, the Liberals and NDP MPs voted in support of and passed the 2024 budget. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland championed this budget that has $53 billion in new spending and a $40 billion deficit this year – with no timeline on when the government may return to a balanced budget. The business community has rejected the fiscal plan and many Canadians see that the country’s future generations are now fated to carry an unsustainable national debt. Business magnate Frank Stronach surmised that the Liberal budget is “the nail in the coffin of small businesses.” A lead Globe and Mail editorial warned: “The Liberals’ capital-gains tax hike punishes prosperity.” Still the budget passed without the Liberals addressing Canadians’ concerns.
The central policy initiative in the Liberals’ budget was its housing commitment. There were multiple promises made and Trudeau touted that by 2031 the Liberal home construction plan would build 3.87 million houses. He asserted on X: “We’re going to change the way homes are built in Canada. And we’re going to create a new generation of homeowners.” Yet, in doing the math on this bold plan, one can quickly deduce that it is an impossibility. In the coming seven years, to reach its goal, the federal government will have to build roughly a home per minute.
Trudeau promises to build more than 575,000 houses per year and, at the same time this week, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation reported a decline in housing starts last year and a projected further decline this year. Stats Can reports that since 2015 there has been only 225,104 houses built per year. Government-sponsored legacy media heralds the Liberals’ housing promise; why should facts get in the way – and why should parliament bother to debate the issue?
In conjunction with the Liberal and NDP MPs ratifying the budgetary spending plans, Freeland has proposed an increase to the national borrowing limit, to a record $2.1 trillion. This is the second time in three years that Freeland has sought to raise the government’s borrowing ceiling. In 2021, the borrowing limit was about half: $1.17 trillion. This time Freeland offers no explanation as to why the government requires more credit room. She simply states (presumably speaking directly to Liberal and NDP MPs): “I call upon my parliamentary colleagues to pass this as soon as possible.”
Canadian economic news this week has reinforced analysts’ worry about the financial health of the nation. Statistics Canada released new data on Tuesday showing the country’s GDP-per-capita is freefalling. GDP-per-capita is a measure of economic output and it signals trends with Canadians’ wealth and prosperity. This indicator has tanked and it is now well below its long-term trend line. It’s “a grim picture” as some financiers have put it and the new data underscores the Bank of Canada’s recent declaration that the country is facing an “emergency” of weak labour productivity and eroding business investment.
There are other issues that demand answers if we were not all so entranced by Diagolon and whether Fergus will do the honourable thing and resign. Here: ArriveCan scandal, McKinsey sole-sourced contracts, details of the capital gains tax changes, Winnipeg lab security breaches, findings that suggest the Liberals knew and attempted to conceal facts about China’s influence in elections, and the escalation of the anti-Israel, pro-Humas demonstrations tolerated by the government and police on Canadian campuses, on city streets, and, most reprehensible, in known Jewish neighbourhoods.
And the dread and anguish of British Columbians deserves answers from this government.
Last week B.C. Premier David Eby asked the federal government to halt the hard drugs pilot program that is currently in year one of three. It was expressed as an “urgent” request to alleviate what has become an intolerable situation in B.C. communities – where drugged-up people lay incapacitated in streets, shoot up in kids’ playgrounds and school yards, and cause fear in hospital corridors. It is a crisis that is killing an average of seven people a day.
Trudeau continues to defend and promote the Liberal policy that has decriminalized possession of small amounts of heroin, fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine, among other street drugs. Ya’ara Saks, the federal Addictions Minister is also avoiding the facts, asking for more information though the B.C. Premier and provincial health minister have indicated all data has been shared.
Why is there not a serious debate in Canada’s parliament about seven British Columbians dying daily as a result of drugs? How do Canadians get a response to this serious issue and the many others when they all seem to get lost in the hurley burley under the big top?
Chris George is an advocate, government relations advisor, and writer/copy editor. As president of a public relations firm established in 1994, Chris provides discreet counsel, tactical advice and management skills to CEOs/Presidents, Boards of Directors and senior executive teams in executing public and government relations campaigns and managing issues. Prior to this PR/GR career, Chris spent seven years on Parliament Hill on staffs of Cabinet Ministers and MPs. He has served in senior campaign positions for electoral and advocacy campaigns at every level of government. Today, Chris resides in Almonte, Ontario where he and his wife manage www.cgacommunications.com. Contact Chris at chrisg.george@gmail.com.
