The 15 minutes directly before Question Period every day in the House of Commons is reserved for what are called Members Statements. MPs get 1 minute to say just about anything they want. Most of the time, MPs get up to acknowledge somebody or something special back in their riding, as Hamilton NDP MP Chris Charlton did today, when she saluted a slo-pitch league in her riding or when Liberal Michell Simson congratulated William McDonald for his work in helping veterans in her Toronto riding.
But recently, Members Statements has become a partisan battleground as Conservatives and Liberals throw verbal snowballs back and forth at each other across the aisle. (If you're counting, I'd say the Conservatives started this little fight last year, when they'd use Members Statements to pick on former Liberal Leader Stephane Dion and try to unnerve just before QP got started.)
Here's today's snowball fight, with Liberal Anthony Rota leading off:
M. Anthony Rota (Nipissing—Timiskaming, Lib.)
: Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives have become a single issue party. The issue is taxes. They want them higher and they will have more of them to pay for their staggering deficit. Their leader told the House two days ago he will not bring in another budget, and I quote, “until we need to raise taxes”. It is now clear: taxes will rise under the Conservatives.
In these tough economic times, that is not what Canadians need. We need a stable and focused leadership that only the Liberals can provide.
Ce gouvernement conservateur attaque les familles canadiennes qui travaillent fort, et ils veulent faire en sorte qu'il soit encore plus difficile pour les Canadiens de subvenir aux besoins de leur famille.
Tout court, les conservateurs causeront des impôts plus élevés.
Raising taxes to cover their incompetence is just plain wrong. I know it is wrong. The people of my riding know it is wrong, and all Canadians know it is wrong. It is only the Conservatives who have not figured it out yet.
The always excitable Jacques Gourde then threw one right back at the red team:
M. Jacques Gourde (Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, PCC): Monsieur le Président, je veux rappeler au chef de l'opposition que l'enjeu aujourd'hui, ce n'est pas le déficit, c'est l'économie. Nous sommes en pleine récession mondiale et nous ferons tout ce qui est nécessaire pour protéger les Canadiens et les aider à surmonter la tempête économique.
Les mesures que nous prenons sont nécessaires, abordables et à court terme.
Nous ne présenterons pas d'excuses pour avoir fait des dépenses afin de stimuler l'économie, de protéger les emplois et d'appuyer les chômeurs. En fait, s'il devient nécessaire d'en faire encore plus, nous le ferons.
Les libéraux font preuve d'hypocrisie. D'un côté, ils critiquent la taille du déficit, et de l'autre, ils exigent que nous dépensions des milliards de dollars supplémentaires. Le chef libéral tourne au gré du vent et change de direction, comme un coq sur une grange. Par chez nous, on appelle cela une girouette.
There was a short break in the action while the aforementioned Ms. Charlton said something nice about people who slowly throw softballs at batters. And then Conservative Rodney Weston got back to throwing more mud at the Liberals:
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Mr. Rodney Weston (Saint John, CPC): Mr. Speaker, the Liberal leader is leading the Liberal Party down the path of hypocrisy and they are losing credibility with Canadians. On one hand the Liberal leader is in Toronto saying that he stands up for seal hunters, meanwhile, the Liberal Party's campaign boss is calling the hunt “appalling and more trouble than it's worth”.
Our Conservative government believes that seal hunters and their families are worth it. They are worth defending and our conservative government will continue to stand up for them.
The Liberal leader's biggest hypocrisy of all is on Canada's economy. On one hand they are attacking the size of the deficit and then on the other they are demanding billions and billions more in spending. They cannot have it both ways.
While the Liberal leader and his party continue on this path of hypocrisy, our Conservative government will continue to support and help Canadians during these tough economic times.
The BQ's Christiane Gagnon then jumped in with some criticism of Conservative Quebec MPs who, she felt, weren't standing up strong enough for the principal of appointing bilingual judges to the Supreme Court.
And then it was Liberal Scott Andrews' turn to get into it:
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Mr. Scott Andrews (Avalon, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Prime Minister admitted to the House that he is spending hours holed up in his basement, going through old tapes that he has collected on the Leader of the Opposition.
We knew the government was a bit shaky when it came to scientific novelties like the greenhouse effect and the theory of evolution, but who knew they missed the digital revolution as well.
The Prime Minister seems to be stuck in another political era. Who does the Prime Minister think he is, Richard Nixon?
What are these tapes the Prime Minister is talking about? Is he bugging the phone lines again, just like when they eavesdropped on the NDP? Are there microphones in our offices and cameras in the potted plants?
It is time for the Prime Minister to wake up, throw away his little spy cameras and start focusing on the mess that he and his government have made to this economy or else he may be remembered in political history as fondly as Richard Nixon.
Andrews finished that one with a nice flourish, raising his arms up over his head and doing Nixon's V-for-Victory gesture.
But then, batting cleanup for the Conservatives as he often does, rose the hulking form of Daryl Kramp, Kramp was once an OPP officer in rural eastern Ontario and, though he's a pretty gentle guy when you're chatting with him, I can't say as I would ever want to get him angry at me. Perhaps because of his intimidating physical and vocal presence, he often gets the last spot before QP starts, perhaps in the belief that he'll throw off the Leader of the Opposition who he knows will speak next, asking the first question of Question Period. Here's Kramp's effort today:
Mr. Daryl Kramp (Prince Edward—Hastings, CPC): Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are off in dreamland again. The issue is not the deficit, it is the economy. We are in a global recession, and the Conservatives will do whatever it takes to protect Canadians, to help them weather this economic storm.
The measures we are taking, they are necessary, they are affordable and they are short term, unlike the Liberal hypocrisy. On the one hand, they simply attack the size of the deficit and also demand billions more in spending.
As the Liberal leader revealed, their plan is to raise taxes on Canadian families and businesses. On April 14 he said “We will have to raise taxes”. He declared that a GST hike is on the table.
They support billions more on an east-west power grid, another $1 billion-plus on EI, $5 billion to bring back the Kelowna Accord that was written on the back of a napkin. The world economy is in a difficult position. Canada is a leader in this G8, but the Liberals are trying to spend us into oblivion. Canadians do not need taxes from the Liberals with their hands in the cookie jar.
In these times, only the Conservative government's steady leadership can keep us on the right track.