Mark Carney and Pierre Poilievre… Had a Heated Exchange in the House

On their first day back in the House after all the floor crossings and the three Liberal victories in the three by-elections, the two main party leaders had a vintage Parliamentary debate which foretells what it is going to be like between the two leaders in the long period before the next election.

After their bi-partisan concern during observances for the Tumbler Ridge shootings, the two leaders, symbolically, held hands. Poilievre “played nice” for a while, and this heralded a new era of cooperation between the two main parties and a more cooperative, civilized approach by Poilievre.

But stung by the floor crossings of four of his caucus members to the Liberals, Poilievre reverted to the role in which he is most comfortable, that of attack dog.

Poilievre remarked in an interview with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation that Carney is “badly educated in economics.”

In the House, Poilievre said the Liberals had already blown the federal deficit, as the November 4 budget had projected a $78.3 billion deficit for the current fiscal year which ended in March and more than $65 billion for the current fiscal year.

Poilievre, who holds an undergraduate degree in International Relations from the University of Calgary, was up against Carney who has been the Governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, and holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard and a Master’s and PhD, both in Economics, from Oxford.
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Poilievre drew laughter in the House from the Conservative benches, but Prime Minister Carney had the last laugh when he told Poilievre: “I feel like I’m in the presence of students.”

Of course, Carney had a tumultuous welcome at the Liberal caucus with the three bright and youthful women who won the by-elections.

For his part, Poilievre continued his angry tone, saying that Carney secured his majority in the House of Commons through “backroom deals with politicians who betrayed the people who voted for them.”
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Nonetheless, in the by-elections there were dramatic wins for the Liberals in all three ridings, and the Conservative vote slid badly in University-Rosedale and Scarborough Southwest.

The Conservative vote all but evaporated in the Montreal region riding of Terrebonne.
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Wearing her red headscarf, Doly Begum, who left the NDP and her Queen’s Park seat to run for Carney’s Liberals, took no less than 70 per cent of the vote in the Scarborough Southwest riding.

Enthusiasts of victorious Liberal candidate in Terrebonne, Christinna Muschi, Canadian Press photo

Doly Begum celibrates her dramatic win in Scarborough Southwest. Evan Mitsui photo/CBC

In addition to having lost Doly Begum to the Liberals, the NDP took a minuscule .5 per cent of the vote in Terrebonne riding, after winning that seat during Jack Layton’s Orange Wave in 2011.
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Avi Lewis, the new leader of the federal New Democrats did not fair well in some of his first days after assuming his party’s leadership. In his first foray into the Parliamentary Press gallery, he awkwardly cut off Heather McPherson MP, the number two candidate for the leadership.

Then, in an interview with the CBC’s David Cochrane on Power and Politics, Lewis appeared presumptuous and overly testy, and did himself no favours there either.

The floor crossings, four from the Conservatives and one from the NDP, continue to prompt media questions about ethics and in the Conservative Opposition. The most notable floor crosser, Marilyn Gladu, who has been seen as a social Conservative, particularly after supporting the truckers blockade of Ottawa.  A fair question is whether the Liberal Tent had grown too big when she was welcomed into it.

However, even Polievre would likely accept a floor-crosser if one had gone his way.

The by-election wins and the floor crossings certainly put pressure on Carney as well. He now has his 174 seat majority, compared with 140 for the Conservatives, 22 for the Bloc Quebecois, and one for the Greens.

Now, he has to get cracking to address some of the high expectations in his caucus and for Canadians generally for the realization of some of the “Major Projects” he has been touting with the pressure of Donald Trump’s tariffs on this country.

Like many new first ministers do when they first come into office, P.M. Carney has been building himself up as indispensible to the success of his government. It is time for him to pass some of the responsibility and limelight over to some of his ministers.

Any politician eventually makes some mistakes, and its time to begin spreading some of the responbility and see how “we” is a better word than “me”.