As Kady notes, things apparently got a bit uncomfortable during QP this morning. Here’s the full extent of Mr. Poilievre’s comments. Emphasis ours.
As Kady notes, things apparently got a bit uncomfortable during QP this morning. Here’s the full extent of Mr. Poilievre’s comments. Emphasis ours.
Hon. John McKay (Scarborough—Guildwood, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, in the first year the government sole-sourced 40% of its $17 billion in military procurements. It is estimated that sole-sourcing increasing costs by 30%. However that is just the tip of the iceberg. We have a finance minister who has a talent for pricing illegal contracts to his friends but shows no aptitude for estimating deficits. We have a Prime Minister who craves appearances on U.S. television while driving Canada’s fiscal house into the ditch. Why?
Mr. Pierre Poilievre (Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and to the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, CPC): Mr. Speaker, on this side of the House, we have a leader, a real Canadian leader. On that side of the House, they have the man who fathered the carbon tax, put it up for adoption to his predecessor and now wants a paternity test to prove the tar baby was never his in the first place. He attacks the deficit that he voted for but wants billions more for a 45-day work year. On this side of the House, we stand for lower taxes, strong economic action plan, getting the job done for Canadians. That is where we stand. That is our leader.
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Mr. LaVar Payne (Medicine Hat, CPC): Mr. Speaker, last May, CTV’s Craig Oliver asked the Liberal leader: Now that you’re the first leader as a candidate for leader to talk about a carbon tax and you took a little bit of heat for that, do you still believe in a carbon tax? Of course you do. The Liberal leader replied: I do, Craig. I learned there’s no punishment more severe in politics than being the first guy with a good idea. Is that what the Liberal leader meant when he asked, last month, “Will we have to raise taxes?” Would the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister please inform the House?
Mr. Pierre Poilievre (Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and to the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, CPC): Mr. Speaker, the Liberal leader should give himself more credit. He fathered the carbon tax idea. Then he generously put it up for adoption to his predecessor. And now, of course, he wants a paternity test to prove that this tar baby is not his. He says the coalition on which he signed in support of would break up the country. He attacks the deficit that he voted for and wants billions more of spending, even on a 45-day EI work year. When he is in Britain, he is British. When he is in America, he is American. When he is in B.C., he is against the auto bailout. When he is in Ontario, he wants it to be bigger. The Liberal leader does not seem to know who he is.