“That's bad. You didn't answer my question. I want you to look bad. I want to make you look like you do not know what you are doing.”
What they said. What they meant.
Plain-language translations from the House of Commons.
Recent debates
8 latest topics
Spring Economic Update 2026 Implementation Act
57 statements
Spring Economic Update 2026 Implementation Act
19 statements
Arab Heritage Month Act
5 statements
The Economy
15 statements
Government Priorities
2 statements
Government Priorities
2 statements
Housing
12 statements
The Environment
2 statements
Government Orders
Business of Supply
A wide-ranging bill to implement the Spring 2026 Economic Update, touching on everything from tax deductions for tradespeople to aviation fuel taxes to beer excise duty rates. In 5 hours of debate, MPs mostly grilled the Finance Minister on unrelated topics like ride-sharing regulation, StatsCan data collection, and election promises from 2015. Some substantive questions were asked about domestic investment levels and the bill's housing provisions, but mostly talk went in circles without many direct answers.
“I'm not going to answer your question directly. Instead, I will vaguely praise the auto sector hoping you will accept that instead of an answer.”
“You won't give a real answer, so I'll ask a nitpicky gotcha question instead.”
“I'm going to ignore your question and talk about how great our investments are.”
“You won't answer my questions. The number is low. I bet you don't even know the percentage.”
“I'm going to talk about good news instead of answer your question. I want people watching to think we are helping industry succeed.”
“I want people to think the Liberals are banning almost all vehicles in Canada by 2035.”
“I'm filling time with kind words and saying nothing anyone could pin down later.”
“You keep saying that electric cars are the future. But Canada hardly makes any of them. When you say electric is Canada's future, you must really mean electric cars made in China. 50,000 Chinese electric cars are already on their way thanks to you.”
“Electric cars are the future. Of course it takes time for new technology to catch on. Tesla took 17 years to be profitable. The Model T wasn't an instant success either. We're doing what we've always done, just with new technology. Look at what manufacturers are doing around the world. Forget the talking points.”
“Why are you spending so much money to go backwards? You say electric is the future. Then you spend half a billion to switch a factory back to gas engines. That makes no sense.”
“I'm filling time with kind words and saying nothing anyone could pin down later. I want taxpayers to spend lots of money on my preferred programs. I don't like when you question my spending.”
“That won't happen. It's impossible. You're letting in too many Chinese cars.”
“I want to spend taxpayers' money to support car companies now and in the future.”
“You criticized China's unfair practices, but now you're letting in 50,000 Chinese electric cars per year. Which is it? Were you wrong then or are you wrong now?”
“I'm going to ignore your criticism and just repeat that our government supports the auto industry. Look at this example of a company we helped!”
“You say you're making everything electric. So how come Honda just shut down their giant electric car plant? What's up with that?”
“I don't want to talk about that Honda plant. Sure, it closed, but plans get delayed everywhere. We're investing now so all that stuff will pay off eventually. You just wait.”
“Look, that future you're promising sounds great. I just want to know how Canadian car companies are supposed to go from making basically no electric cars today to making only electric cars eight years from now. Can you actually explain how we get there? Because I don't see it.”
“I'm going to ignore your question and just repeat my talking points.”