The first day back at work is rarely easy. But Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s return to the office was especially hard: He returned to a country that wants to fire his Liberal party – and a Conservative party that’s fired up to take their jobs. Here’s how it went (more or less):
Pierre On behalf of the two million Canadians using food banks and the students living in homeless shelters: Welcome back from your free $89,000 vacation, Justin! I just have one question: Are you finally ready to undo everything you did to cause Canada’s affordability crisis?
Justin Slogans don’t build houses, Pierre. You have nothing to offer but personal attacks because you have no ideas. All you’ve done is vote against every measure we’ve taken to fix the affordability crisis.
Pierre You told Canadians you paid for your vacation. So tell me: Did you pay the carbon tax on the 200,000 tonnes of carbon your private jets spewed into the atmosphere? While you were living it up on a private beach in Jamaica, the Canadian public nearly froze and starved to death!
Justin Food-price inflation is caused by climate change. Farmers know this as well as anybody. But you have no plan to fight climate change. Plus we struck deals with 30 municipalities to build half a million new homes in the next decade. And you have no plan for housing, either.
Conservative 350,000 Canadians are unhoused – and millions more can’t afford to move out of their parents’ basements or are worried about losing their homes. Yet home construction fell by 7% in 2023. Housing Minister Sean only cares about photo ops. But Canadians can’t live inside photo ops.
Sean Photo ops? We’ve struck binding agreements that require municipalities to modernize how homes are built – faster and denser – and where homes are built – closer to transit. And let’s not forget: When Pierre was housing minister, he built fewer homes than we did last year.
Jagmeet Justin, you just don’t get it: There’s a housing crisis in Canada! Renovictions are at an all-time high. Why do you always wait until there’s a crisis before you decide to do something about it?
Justin We eliminated sales tax on home construction. And we invested an extra $15 billion in loans to build new apartments. Plus we created a tax-free saving account to help Canadians save up for their first home.
NDP Canadians are worried about climate change even while struggling to make ends meet. Meanwhile, oil and gas CEOs are giving themselves obscene bonuses while polluting the planet. When will Environment Minister Steven finally do something about this?
Steven I agree with you. That’s why we have the world’s most ambitious plan for fighting climate change. We’re the only country in the G20 to eliminate subsidies for oil and gas companies… and we’re planning to put an emissions cap on the oil and gas sector as well.
Conservative Last year you spent more money paying interest on all the debt racked up in the last eight years than you spent on health care. Will Finance Minister Chrystia finally cut the spending and balance the budget?
Chrystia Let’s get the facts straight: Canada’s finances are sustainable. That’s why we have a triple-A credit rating. You don’t know how to build – only cut. So what would you cut?
Conservative We’d cut spending on external consultants, the Asian Infrastructure Bank, the ArriveCan app… and, of course, we’d axe the carbon tax.
Chrystia You’d cut support for Ukraine. Why do you support Vladimir Putin? Have you no shame?
Conservative Why don’t you care that mothers are being forced to water down their milk?
Chrystia Conservatives don’t care about working families. We’ve brought the cost of daycare down to $10 a day in seven provinces. And we cut the poverty rate in half, lifting millions of families into the middle class. And guess what? You voted against those programs!
Conservative Oh please. You live in downtown Toronto. You have no idea what reality is really like for all the real Canadians. Why won’t you axe the tax?
Chrystia It’s certainly true that most Canadians don’t live like Pierre does: in a house with a chef and butlers – all paid for by Canadian tax dollars. But that doesn’t change the fact that eight in ten Canadians get more back from the rebate than they pay in the carbon tax.
Yves Quebec took in 44% of all asylum seekers last year – but we’re only 24% of the population. When will the federal government start working with the provinces to redistribute these people… and pay Quebecers back for shouldering Canada’s growing refugee crisis?
Justin Actually, we are working with provinces to address the rise in asylum seekers, temporary foreign workers and international students. But Canada needs more immigrants to build our homes and work in our health care system.
Bloc The number of asylum seekers from Mexico has exploded since you cancelled visa requirements for visiting Mexicans. What will Immigration Minister Marc do to stop people from coming here and making bogus refugee claims faster than we’re able to process them?
Marc We’re dealing with historic levels of asylum seekers, yes – not just from Mexico. We aren’t ready to share our plan to address this problem publicly yet… but, trust us, we’re working on it.
Convincing Canadians that they can trust the government to fix Canada’s problems when more and more people believe that everything is broken? Now that’s a hard job.