{"id":147676,"date":"2025-09-16T08:38:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T08:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/147676\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T08:38:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T08:38:11","slug":"carney-poilievre-face-off-for-first-time-in-parliament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/147676\/","title":{"rendered":"Carney, Poilievre face off for first time in Parliament"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, left, speaks with Prime Minister Mark Carney before Question Period in Ottawa on Monday.Adrian Wyld\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Like boxers tapping gloves before a fight, Prime Minister Mark Carney and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre shared a few quiet words and a laugh in the aisle of the House of Commons just moments before they were to spar for the first time.<\/p>\n

And for a time Monday, Question Period was a friendly match between the Liberal government and a Conservative bench reinvigorated by Mr. Poilievre\u2019s return to Parliament after a by-election win<\/a> this summer. <\/p>\n

Though Parliament sat briefly after the spring election, Mr. Poilievre had lost his seat and thus the role of Opposition Leader was handled by Andrew Scheer. Then, Damien Kurek, who had just been re-elected as Conservative MP<\/a> for the Alberta riding of Battle River-Crowfoot, stepped down, and Mr. Carney swiftly called a by-election to give his rival a chance for a spot back in the Commons. <\/p>\n

Canadians want MPs to focus on cost of living, trade negotiations with U.S. in fall sitting, poll shows<\/a><\/p>\n

On Monday, Mr. Poilievre thanked the Prime Minister for that decision, though quipped it may be one that he comes to regret. <\/p>\n

The Conservative Leader\u2019s first question \u2013 posed once in English, then again in French \u2013 appeared to be offered in the sprit of collaboration, asking Mr. Carney whether his government shared the Conservatives\u2019 goal of a prosperous Canada. <\/p>\n

\u201cI agree entirely with the sentiment,\u201d Mr. Carney replied, speaking in French.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre faced off in question period.<\/p>\n

The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t the only collegial moment. Conservative MP Luc Berthold rose ahead of Question Period and delivered an emotional statement about his son\u2019s death by suicide. His seatmates wrapped him in a hug as MPs from all parties rose for a standing ovation. <\/p>\n

Another round of collective applause followed Conservative MP Rachael Thomas\u2019s pre-Question Period statement on the death of U.S. right-wing activist Charlie Kirk<\/a>, calling for civility. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs we grapple with our personal response to this, may we be honorable in our actions,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cMay we fiercely defend the rights of our opponents to speak freely.\u201d <\/p>\n

But after the first round of back-and-forth between Mr. Poilievre and Mr. Carney, the rhetorical gloves were dropped, and the Conservatives began to pick apart the Carney government\u2019s actions on the cost of living, crime, housing and immigration \u2013 often accusing the Prime Minister of being \u201cjust another Liberal.\u201d <\/p>\n

Campbell Clark: In tougher times, Parliament returns with Carney\u2019s agenda at stake<\/a><\/p>\n

It was an echo of a previous slogan used by the Conservatives for Mr. Carney, referring to him as \u201cjust like Justin\u201d in the early days of his leadership, a reference to his predecessor Justin Trudeau. <\/p>\n

When the topic turned to immigration, brief confusion on the Liberal benches as to who should answer a question prompted a sharp heckle from the Conservatives: \u201cWake up, Lena,\u201d a reference to Immigration Minister Lena Diab. <\/p>\n

That MPs were rusty at the cut-and-thrust of Question Period showed elsewhere. Some \u2013 including Mr. Carney \u2013 struggled to keep their answers to time. But others, clearly old hands at the daily accountability exercise, used Question Period as they always have \u2013 to catch up on correspondence, review the news or send texts. <\/p>\n

Mr. Carney, with a stack of small desk notepads in front of him, jotted down the odd note, and when not taking questions, often had Finance Minister Fran\u00e7ois-Philippe Champagne chatting into his ear. <\/p>\n

The makeup of Parliament is such that the majority of time in Question Period is now allotted to the Conservatives with 144 seats to the Liberals\u2019 169. The Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois have 22 seats, the NDP 7 and the Greens 1.<\/p>\n

When it was Bloc Leader Yves-Fran\u00e7ois Blanchet\u2019s turn for questions, he pressed Mr. Carney on his relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump and the state of trade talks. <\/p>\n

Speaking in French, Mr. Carney called Mr. Trump a modern man, noting he has a cellphone and the pair exchange text messages. The Prime Minister also said they spoke recently. <\/p>\n

Mr. Carney\u2019s predecessor, Justin Trudeau, had a practice of taking all questions from opposition parties on Wednesdays. <\/p>\n

During the spring session of Parliament, Mr. Carney broke from that practice, though he remained in the chamber for all of Monday\u2019s Question Period.<\/p>\n

NDP MP Gord Johns told reporters after that what he saw on display Monday was business as usual. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s consistent is no answers in Question Period.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, left, speaks with Prime Minister Mark Carney before Question…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,714,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-147676","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-politics","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}