Unlike the turmoil behind their closed doors, Tory MPs were united in the House of Commons on Tuesday where inflation figured prominently on their grocery list during Question Period.
On no less than a dozen occasions, members of the Conservative benches rose to criticize the Liberals for “impoverishing Canadians” when the consumer price index reached 4.8% in December on a annualized, inflation not having been so strong in the country since September 1991.
All you do is “vilify the Canadian economy” with “false narratives,” replied Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland. “Statistics Canada released new data today that shows our GDP grew by 0.6% in November and this means that prior to Omicron’s arrival our economy was fully recovered from the COVID recession,” she noted.
The Conservative House Leader, Gérard Deltell, who had just launched the charge, then invited her to accompany him to the grocery store to explain to consumers that: “Wow, the GDP has just increased”. Canada’s “economic potential” is only growing, retorted Minister Freeland, adding that “the IMF recently predicted that Canada will have the second highest growth rate of the G7 countries.”
In this game of ping-pong, MP Deltell added that at the “IGA in Gatineau”, the minister could explain: “Madame Tremblay, don’t worry, the IMF says that Canada is doing well”. Because “all the Madame Tremblays in Canada” pay more for their groceries. Stung to the quick, the Minister announced that “it is not only Mrs. Tremblay who does the grocery shopping, it is also Mrs. Freeland who does it every weekend for my family”.
The minister insisted that “facts and data are important”. Inflation in Canada is below the G7, G20 and OECD averages, she said.
Conservative MP for Calgary, Michelle Rempel Garner, returned to the charge a few minutes later and protested that a minister who has “an annual salary of $ 270,000” compares himself with a person who struggles to pay the grocery store. The Liberals are “out of touch with the average Canadian,” she said in vigorous exchanges.