The Conservatives’ cheeky term for inflation under the Liberals got some MPs into trouble in the House of Commons, where it’s forbidden to say ‘Justinflation’.
Speaker Anthony Rota repeatedly chastised Tory MPs this week for breaking the rules, asking them to ‘correct the mistake’ as their ‘pun intended’ indirectly violated procedure.
The House of Commons has long required MPs to use their colleagues’ titles during debates, but never their first names. Thus, anything that deliberately includes “Justin”, the prime minister’s first name, is excluded.
The conservatives, however, have not yet been deterred. The daily transcript of debates in the House of Commons has recorded their use of the term more than a hundred times since last November.
It was then that Pierre Poilievre, who was finance critic at the time and has since become leader of the Conservative Party, began to popularize the term.
Some MPs appeared to react to Mr Rota’s warnings by adding an exaggerated pause between the two words on Wednesday – just in case.
The Liberals rose to complain about the term as early as March, and again this week, after Tory MP Garnett Genuis said “justinflation” three times in a speech.
Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureux said he had been “somewhat patient with the MP” but three times was enough to say Mr Genuis was intentionally using the term “unparliamentary” and “inappropriate” to flout the rules.
Longtime NDP MP Charlie Angus chimed in, complaining that Mr. Genuis uses the term all the time. “It’s a bit corny and I don’t think it’s appropriate. […] The Speaker should ask the member to withdraw his lame comment. »
Assistant Deputy Speaker Carol Hughes said: “I know the MP puts it into his speech a little differently, but again I want to caution him about using that word. »
The Conservatives, who have worked it into their speeches a little differently on a myriad of occasions, aren’t the only ones making the joke.
NDP MP Niki Ashton, in a statement to the House last week, alluded to it, saying that while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mr. Poilievre have little in common, they are both “just in bed with their business buddies”.
Mr. Trudeau himself has uttered “fair inflation” only once in the House, when he tried to turn the tables on the Conservatives last December.
“They talk to Canadians about the problems they face with declining affordability, rising prices for everything, difficulty buying gas, difficulty buying computers, and they shrug their shoulders and say “Oh, it’s just inflation,” he said.
“Well, it’s not just inflation; that is the goal we must have in order to continue to invest in Canadians. Afterwards, he never said it again.