Poilievre challenges Liberals on cost of living in question period debut

People angry because 'they're hurting': Poilievre Speaking on the current political climate, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says many people feel angry because "they're hurting."

Making his question period debut in the House of Commons, Official Opposition leader Pierre Poilievre focused in on the cost of living and the government’s handling of inflation.

Speaking in French, the new Conservative leader asked whether the Liberals would cancel planned “tax increases”—referencing scheduled hikes to the Canada Pension Plan and Employment Insurance premiums— saying "Canadians just aren't able to pay."

Fielding the Liberals’ response—as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in New York attending the UN General Assembly— was associate Minister of Finance and Tourism Minister Randy Boissonnault.

"Throughout the session, you will see two competing visions: our plan as a government to support Canadians who needed the most and then the other option, the vision of the Conservative Party and members who don't care about Canadians," he offered, in French.

The first chance for Trudeau and Poilievre to square off will likely come on Thursday.

While Trudeau congratulated Poilievre when MPs gathered last week in the House for tributes to Queen Elizabeth II, the two haven't locked horns as across-the-aisle adversaries since Poilievre handily won the months-long Conservative leadership race on Sept. 10, though for years Poilievre has been on of the party's leading Liberal critics in the House.

As question period carried on, Poilievre continued down this line of inquiry, highlighting the impacts rising costs of groceries, gas, and housing are having on Canadians. In asking the Liberals what they're doing to help people pay their bills, he suggested the higher CPP and EI premiums “shrink paycheques.”

In response, the Liberals pointed to a pair of bills tabled on Tuesday meant to offer affordability assistance to low-to-modest income families through a GST rebate boost, and dental and housing benefits.

To this, Poilievre suggested these targeted aid measures would be "vaporized by inflation." In a later quip, Boissonnault suggested what was "vaporized" was savings from any Canadians who took Poilievre's cryptocurrency investment advice.

Ahead of question period, some Conservative MPs used time allocated to allow them to deliver similarly-worded statements to testify to what they say the new Conservative leader will do, claiming that will be putting "people first."

MPs from other parties made other predictions, as they were asked throughout the day how they think Poilievre's leadership may change the tone in the House.

"It is clear that his priorities are very different. He has shown a pattern since he was in government, since he was minister, to present—where he's sided with wealthy CEOs, opposing the idea of making them pay their fair share… he's voted against minimum salaries," NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh told reporters on Tuesday.

In making this remark, Singh was essentially repeating the message in a new attack ad the NDP have rolled out on social media against their fellow opposition party leader.

Government House Leader Mark Holland said he's waiting to see whether Poilievre will continue down the political path he pursued during the Conservative leadership race.

"If you know, there’s a continuance of the circus, then, you know, we’ll have to see who will buy tickets. But I don’t think that’s what people want," he said.

PANDEMIC, GUN CONTROL COME UP

The opening of the fall sitting of the House fell on the one-year anniversary of the 2021 federal election.

On Sept. 20, 2021 Trudeau vowed to get “back to work,” after taking a gamble and being dealt a second minority government that looked much like the one Canadians elected in 2019. While the makeup in the House remains the same, a lot has shifted politically.

Vaccine mandates were one of the key issues that the Liberals fought the last election on, and on Tuesday as MPs filtered in to West Block ahead of question period, they were faced with a small contingent of anti-vaccine protestors echoing messages elevated to the national stage for weeks on end during this winter's "Freedom Convoy" protests in the capital.

While the rules around requiring vaccinations have largely been lifted, the House of Commons remains under a hybrid sitting structure, with questions circulating as to whether its time for these pandemic precautions to also become a thing of the past.

On Tuesday, Holland said as the Procedure and House Affairs Committee begins its deliberations over what worked and what didn't with the mixed virtual and in-person sitting structure, there is a recognition among MPs that Canada is returning to some sense of normality.

"We have to take this one cautious step at a time, following the science and evidence, and doing our utmost to keep people safe," Holland said. "We don’t know where it’s going to go. I’m hopeful, but not clairvoyant. And you know, I don’t have the ability to see the future. I just have the ability to analyze facts in real time and try to make the most appropriate decision. And that’s what we’re trying to do."

Another election issue still playing itself out in Ottawa, is the Liberals' promise of further gun control measures. There's an outstanding piece of government legislation that Holland says the Liberals will be prioritizing this fall.

Bill C-21 seeks to further restrict legal access to handguns in Canada, and create systems to flag individuals who may pose a risk to themselves or others. The bill would also increase the maximum penalties to 14 years from 10 for firearm-related offences such as smuggling, make it an offence to alter a cartridge magazine beyond its lawful capacity and prohibit certain replica firearms that closely resemble real guns.

Since its introduction, advocates both for and against the firearms bill have shared mixed reactions to the proposed law. During the summer the Liberals used a regulatory work around to ban the importation of restricted handguns ahead of the bill becoming law.

Asked Tuesday how the minority Liberals plan to get this bill through amid Conservative pushback, Holland said they plan to move quickly because while they "want to be respectful of the fact that we want rigorous debate to occur in the House… Canadians expect action."

One party seemingly ready to help back the passage of this legislation is the Bloc Quebecois, who led off their first round during question period with MP Alain Therrien saying he was glad to be back in the House "because we really need to talk about guns," citing an uptick in shootings in Montreal.

While Poilievre's question period debut focused on inflation, his first remarks in the House on Tuesday were focused on crime, as he participated in a series of statements from each party on the James Smith Cree Nation mass murder in Saskatchewan earlier this month.