Prime Minister Mark Carney faced off with Conservatives and other opposition members in his first question period Wednesday, batting away attacks on his plans for the economy and the federal budget.
All eyes were on how Carney — a political novice who earned his first seat in the House of Commons in the recent federal election, in the Ottawa riding of Nepean — would fare in the political hot seat as a new Parliament under his Liberal government gets underway this week.
It didn’t take long for Carney to face criticism for his responses.
“Well, he didn’t take long to pick up old Liberal habits of not being able to answer questions,” Opposition Leader Andrew Scheer said after the prime minister’s first answer, which dodged an allegation that the government “secretly dropped” its counter-tariffs on U.S. goods to “effectively zero” through exemptions.
Asked by Scheer and other Conservatives why the government won’t table a federal budget until the fall, Carney pointed to legislation tabled Tuesday that would reduce tax levels for middle-class Canadians and a GST rebate for first-time homebuyers.
“Our plan includes legislating for one Canadian economy and nation-building projects immediately to grow this economy, and we expect the support from all in this House,” he said.
Conservative MP Pierre Paul-Hus, the party’s Quebec lieutenant, countered in French that “a budget would have been a plan.”
“What is the government trying to hide about this Liberal government’s finances?” he asked.
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Carney responded in French that his legislative plan is “daring” and “ambitious.”
Throughout, Carney’s responses appeared calm and the rounds did not rise to become heated, or warrant any intervention from the Speaker — as happened often when tensions flared between former prime minister Justin Trudeau, his ministers and opposition members during the previous Parliament.
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Carney did get pointed when Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet asked why the throne speech delivered by King Charles III — who Blanchet called a “foreign monarch” — did not mention trade or tariffs.
Trade was mentioned multiple times in the throne speech, which the Bloc Quebecois chose not to attend over the party’s refusal to acknowledge the King as Canada’s sovereign.
“For those who were there,” Carney responded in French with a smile, “we heard about transformation in the throne speech: the transformation of the global trade system, which is a security crisis for Canada.
“We have a daring plan in order to respond to this crisis.”
Carney also broke from Trudeau by not answering every question from all MPs on Wednesday, rather than just party leaders and top deputies, a change previewed by the Prime Minister’s Office to Global News earlier this week.
After responding to Scheer, Paul-Hus and Blanchet, the prime minister ceded to his cabinet ministers for questions on their specific files. Those ministers faced more heckling from the opposition benches than Carney did.
Energy Minister Tim Hodgson, for example, took multiple questions from Conservatives about whether the government plans to repeal laws that limit energy project development.
“While my Conservative colleagues are interested in playing politics, I’m interested in getting things built — including pipelines where there is consensus,” said Hodgson, a first-time MP who previously worked with Carney at Goldman Sachs and the Bank of Canada.
Hodgson wasn’t the only rookie cabinet minister to face tough questions Wednesday.
Housing and Infrastructure Minister Gregor Robertson, the former mayor of Vancouver, defended the government’s housing plans and his past comments that suggested he doesn’t believe home prices in Canada should go down.
“If he’s adamant that prices shouldn’t go down, how much does he think that they should go up?” Conservative deputy leader Melissa Lantsman asked.
“It’s not about reducing the value of an individual’s home or senior’s home — the member may wish to force seniors to sell their homes for less,” Robertson responded.
“We’re going to focus on building more affordable housing and delivering a cut to the GST to first-time homebuyers.”
Wednesday’s question period was also the first for new Speaker of the House Francis Scarpaleggia, who was elected to the role on Monday.
Scheer is serving as Opposition leader in the House of Commons until Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who lost his riding in the election, can regain a seat in a future byelection.
King Charles formally opened Parliament on Tuesday with the speech from the throne, and the minority Liberal government says it will move quickly to pass a promised one-point cut to the bottom income tax bracket.
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