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Have a good week for Andrés Fontecilla

For years, the solidarity MP for Laurier-Dorion has had the impression of preaching in the desert when he talks about tenants who are victims of real estate speculators. With the crisis intensifying, his speech becomes more popular. He took the opportunity to bring to the attention of a now more receptive public frankly revolting stories, such as that of four young brothers from Shawinigan threatened with eviction. The statistics were already known, but by putting faces to the crisis, Mr. Fontecilla is putting pressure on finding solutions. He was not the only one. It should be noted that her colleague Alejandra Zaga Mendez was the first in the party to ask a question on the subject.

Paul Journet, The Press

Tough week for Jean-Yves Duclos

It was a very bad week to be Canada’s Minister of Public Services and Procurement. The fiasco ofArriveCAN is even bigger than we thought. The firm GC Strategies received several over-the-counter contracts for several million dollars. The Canadian public service seems to have lost control of spending since the Liberals came to power. To this, Mr. Duclos was unable to offer anything other than the usual contrition followed by promises to do better. True, two officials were suspended. But we have the impression that we are only just beginning to discover the extent of waste in consultancy fees and other forms of budgetary laxity in the public service.

Paul Journet, The Press

The quote of the week

Don’t touch my plastic straw

On Monday, in Montreal, a report told us that single-use plastic was on the verge of disappearing. “Its ban was obvious,” argued the mayor of the metropolis, Valérie Plante. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Ottawa River, the Conservative Party tabled a “common sense” bill to “end Trudeau’s radical plastic bans.” Saskatchewan MP Corey Tochor’s private member’s measure C-380 would allow Canadians “to save money at the grocery store, while protecting their freedom to choose the products that suit them best,” the panel said. of press release. Last November, the Federal Court invalidated the decree designating single-use plastic items as “toxic” under the Environmental Protection Law. Justin Trudeau’s government appealed this judgment.

WTF: new definition!

The leader of the Conservative Party, Pierre Poilievre, will stop at nothing to capture the imagination by using powerful formulas. He pushed his craft even further this week, in the House of Commons, as he peppered the Prime Minister with questions about the financial fiasco surrounding the app’s design ArriveCAN. “WTF,” he said in English, an acronym that means something that we don’t dare write in this section. Called to order by the Speaker of the Commons, Greg Fergus, Mr. Poilievre quickly got back on his feet. “ Where are the funds “, he said, provoking bursts of laughter in the conservative ranks. Proud of the joke, the party even made sweaters for its supporters. Clearly, the Conservative leader doesn’t miss a single one!

The two best enemies

Are we witnessing the start of a “bromance” between the leader of the Parti Québécois, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, and the potential candidate for the leadership race of the Liberal Party of Quebec Denis Coderre? The former mayor of Montreal made a splash at the National Assembly on February 14 where he confirmed the launch of the “No, thank you!” movement. » against the referendum threat. He also predicted that the 2026 electoral campaign would be a “referendum” campaign with the return of the “federalism-separatism axis”. Piqued, the PQ leader invited himself into Mr. Coderre’s press scrum, which gave rise to an exchange that was comical to say the least. Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon took things with a dose of humor: “For Valentine’s Day, find someone who looks at you the way Denis Coderre looks at me,” he wrote on the X network Having opposing political visions, the two men could well become the best of enemies in the next elections.