Knives were flying low in the Commons on Thursday, as the Bloc told the Conservatives their truths during a nearly six-hour debate on a motion on “taxes” on carbon.
“Don’t bait me with your lies. You are the low-end lobbyists of the oil companies,” said the Bloc leader, Yves-François Blanchet.
The motion, which Mr. Blanchet describes as a “patent” of “narrow conservative propaganda” which aims to “trap the House”, calls for removing all these “taxes” on carbon and specifically targets the Bloc.
Mr. Blanchet cannot digest that the Conservatives launched negative advertisements last month in which his party is accused of supporting the “carbon tax”, which is also presented as the “Trudeau-Bloc tax”. However, this “tax”, as the Conservatives like to call it, does not apply to Quebec.
The Conservatives also consider that the Bloc supports the regulations on clean fuels which they associate with “a second tax” which will increase the price of gasoline by 17 cents per liter by 2030 according to the parliamentary budget officer. They rely on a Commons vote in June that the Bloc rejected as misleading.
“I have a question for the conservatives: what is your problem with the truth? “, he said.
Mr. Blanchet, who had nevertheless announced shortly before the start of the parliamentary term that he would be the “adult in the room”, took the opportunity to mock the new style of the Conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre, who launches attacks “between buying a tight t-shirt and a pair of Ray-Ban (sunglasses).
“The leader of the Bloc has screwed up,” mocked Mr. Poilievre during question period. He then assured that Mr. Blanchet “will collapse again in a few moments” before asking the Liberals if they will “continue” to work with the Bloc to “increase taxes at the expense of Quebecers”.
During the debate, Mr. Poilievre described the Bloc as a “disconnected” party and “everyman” by quoting, as he has been doing for weeks, a Bloc member who had asserted that the federal carbon tax would have to be “radically” increased.
He then mocked that a “supposedly sovereignist party” wanted to “collect the money in Ottawa from the hands of federal politicians and bureaucrats”. Quebecers should be “masters of their own home and masters of their own money,” he added, referring to the campaign slogan of former Quebec Prime Minister Jean Lesage.
The Conservatives, who are in territory where they can hope to form a majority if elections are called, which is very unlikely, have been increasing attacks on the Bloc since last month.
The most recent Léger poll credits them with 39% of voting intentions nationally. The Liberal Party of Canada obtains 27% and the New Democratic Party (NDP) follows with 18%.
In Quebec, the Bloc collects 29%, tied with the Liberals, and the Conservatives are at 23%, which, compared to the previous survey from the same firm a month earlier, represents an increase of five points for the latter and a drop of seven points for the Bloc.
“Utterly despicable”
In this great catfight, the Conservative lieutenant for Quebec, Pierre Paul-Hus, notably affirmed that, among the 32 Bloc members, “there are some who reason […] who are logical, who understand,” he sent while a coronation was immediately heard in the House of Commons.
After inviting the Bloc members to “go and get elected in Quebec” to achieve independence — “the first point” of their main proposal — Mr. Paul-Hus criticized them for “their new line of communication for two weeks,” either to qualify as “responsible”, while the alleged “adults in the place […] shout behind me.”
“We are not attacking the Bloc,” he said before laughter rang out. What we are doing now is asking the Bloc to show some reason. »
In any case, these “taxes” have consequences in Quebec in the opinion of the Conservatives since the federal tax is reflected in the price of goods produced elsewhere in the country and transported to Quebec and, in the case of the regulation, it is a price imposed by the government on a purchase.
“Call it what you want, we call it a tax. And this tax will apply to Quebec,” summarized their environmental spokesperson, Gérard Deltell.
MP Deltell also poured out his heart in his speech. He asserted that the Bloc is “playing with words” and behaving in a “gluttonous” manner by wanting to “seek even more money from taxpayers’ pockets.” Their attitude is “despicable”, but also “arrogant, irresponsible and completely pretentious”.
The Bloc spokesperson for natural resources and energy, Mario Simard, told him that he had “never heard so much deceit” and then called him a “turnip”.
“Whoa! Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! We will try to keep the comments on the content and not on the person, please,” exclaimed the deputy vice-president of the Chamber, Alexandra Mendès.
All day long, the Liberals and New Democrats also raised grievances. The Conservatives have “no plan” to fight climate change and instead propose to “make pollution free,” said Minister Pascale St-Onge.
The deputy leader of the NDP, Alexandre Boulerice, asked a conservative “what planet he lives on” before lecturing him for having a “pro-oil, pro-pollution ideology”. He was told that he may live in downtown Montreal “from one tramway stop to another” in downtown Montreal, but that many Canadians in rural counties need a car to move.