Mulcair: Does passing a motion in the House of Commons accomplish anything?

Tom Mulcair is brought to you by guaranteed industries for the best Lennox home comfort system out there called guaranteed industries 51434 to 3400 a Lennox premier dealer.

How are you doing this morning, Tom? How are you doing this morning? Just fine, Andrew. How are you doing this morning? I'm OK. But there, you know, I wouldn't like to be the CAC government right now in France while ago. They're coming at them from everywhere. In the health sector, they're complaining about the budget. Basically, there's not a sector where they're not complaining about the budget cuts.

Well, you and I evoked this right at the beginning of this season. I remember back in August, it was one of the first conversations we had. I said, keep an eye on this. They're in serious financial trouble. They're going to be cutting left, right and center, which is exactly what they're doing because they've got to show some numbers this week. It's not just numbers they're showing to the average Quebec voter. These are numbers that go to the financial markets, and this is the key here.

Quebec could suffer, and Durfaux, Iron Durfaux, because that was on this as well over the weekend as was on before that. This is something that could affect Quebec's credit rating, and what does that mean? That means that every time we go to the market to borrow money, which we have to do,

than we'd be paying more. Everything costs more. And it's a spiral. You get into that spiral, everything costs more than you have to cut more. And what's left to cut? Andrew, I don't know if you've been anywhere near our health system recently, but it's in a shambles. And I talked to you yesterday about the 569 positions that were not being filled in the valve. But an almost identical number are not being filled right now on the south shore. So how do you get out of this vine? And we have this new

health saunty Quebec that's supposed to be there to try to fix things up.

But the first thing that they've been told is that their only job is to cut, cut, cut. So going down river, you go all the way down to the gas bay, they thought that they were going to be dealing with a $10 million deficit. But then the government came in last week and said, no, no, no. You know the $20 million deficit you already had earlier in the year that we told you you were going to be able to forget about? We can't forget about it anymore. Now you've got to cut more. So there is literally nothing left to cut. And the fact that they're doing this so radically shows one, a total lack of planning by the CAC, two,

responsibility on a key motion. This is one of the key missions of the government, which is to take to take care of our health care. And this goes back to two things that Lago did. As we were heading into the 2022 election, he said he was going to send out $500 checks to families right away, which he did that summer, just before the election. He said there was another $4 to $6,000 check coming out after the election. And he actually sent that money. And at the same time, he cut taxes impossible.

to cut taxes at the by billions of dollars. At the same time, you're sending out checks for billions of dollars. So guess what? Quebec is broke. We are, perhaps, technically insolvent right now.

and this is a huge problem. So everything else is just window dressing. This is the key issue facing Quebec at the present time. Isn't always interesting is so interesting. We always assume that somebody with a business background is going to come in and be able to do well, but you really need to be such a like a fine balance of knowing how to hold on to the purse strings and be an expert in public policy as well. It's not as easy as it looks.

No, but I mean, of all the people who have ever sat in the chair of Premier Quebec, Legault was one of the best prepared. He had been minister of several important things, including health minister. He was education minister, the two biggest ministries. And how many times did he tell us during the 2018 campaign when he defeated Quiard? Because Quiard was all about austerity and cutting. So he was going to do better.

And what did he say? I'm an accountant. I know how to do this stuff. So apparently we elected an accountant who doesn't know how to count because now we're in dire trouble and there's, again, this is a spiral that sets itself in and you can't get out of it.

Uh, what do you make it? What was the, the point of a unanimous, um, motion in the, uh, that was voted in the, um, in the House of Commons yesterday regarding, uh, condemning the, uh, assassination attempt on, uh, on Erwin Kotler. What was that? Like, what does that do? Immediately none in the, in the immediate time. In other words, okay, who in the House of Commons is not going to vote in favor.

of emotion condemning Iran for threatening urban copper. And that's the easy part. But what it is also, I mean, this might seem like a bit of a stretch. You remember when there was that terrorist attack in Ottawa going back about a decade? The next day, Stephen Harper and I had spoken and we'd spoken with Trudeau and said, we're going back into the house the next morning. And not as if nothing had happened because we spoke to it and we gave speeches about it and so forth. But it was a way of saying,

we're going to be speaking in one voice by our presence in the House that nobody's going to shut down Canadian democratic institutions with a terrorist attack. I think on a much smaller scale because this is an attempt and it's a threat, but it's super serious. So the House of Commons in one voice is saying, this is not on. You cannot threaten us or any member of this House or in this case, a former member. So it was a strong willed approach by Parliament unanimously.

no politics around this it was just straight this isn't going to happen in Canada. I thought it was worthwhile just for that.

uh... employment minister randy bwesano had to apologize three days ago for not being more clear about his indigenous identity he previously for himself is a non-status adopted cree he said his great-grandmother was a full-blooded cree woman this is a regarding uh... some interest that he had in uh... in a so-called indigenous company that received government stuff now what's the what's the deal he's uh... is he indigenous or not and uh... does he have to resign

Today's national post has the newest information on this and I think that the fairest reading is no he is not indigenous although he's

has this sort of vague claim through either adoption or a grandmother, but the national post has actually taken the trouble to go through all of the papers and it looks very sketchy even that part. The bit that's the most troublesome from Trudeau's point of view, because he has to decide whether or not this guy gets to stay in cabinet because Trudeau can't put him out as an MP, but he can certainly put him out of cabinet.

The most troublesome part is the part that you mentioned with regard to this company. It's this company. So he was elected in 15, state and MP until 19, was booted out in 19, reelected in 21. So that company that he was part of was bidding on government contracts, saying that it was indigenous. That part is in shambles. And then there was one of his partners said, well, in some of the emails that went before parliamentary committee, well, we'll ask Randy about this, or Randy is saying that. So the MP said, so the Randy is blessed.

And believe it or not, this guy from his company said, no, I was talking about another Randy. And then they brought him into committee and they made him admit that he was outright lying. So this is the type of stink bomb that a chief of staff of a prime minister should have taken care of a long time ago. Katie Telferts had bigger fish to fry, fair enough. But Trudeau shouldn't even have to be worried about this. Blasano should already be gone. By the way, Andrew, that's going to be on top of the six count of six members of his cabinet who have resigned or are not coming back.

and if left.

And he hasn't replaced them yet. So this would be number seven. So Trudeau is absolutely due for a cabinet shuffle. That's the very least. And Barcelona, I think his career as a cabinet minister is over. Remember in 2015, when that very nice Justin Trudeau promised to bring back my mail delivery, my mail delivery door to door? He also talked about the even the slightest hint of wrongdoing, the slightest whiff of a slight smell, even just like an inkling.

and they'd be gone. Whatever happened to that? Whatever happened to that? That was then and this is now. I remember one of his favorite answers was because it's 2015. I guess the answer today is well because it's 2024 and he gets to do it every once. Even if it's in complete contradiction with what he's promised in the past.