On Parliament Hill

Last week Prime Minister Justin Trudeau presented his government’s highly anticipated Throne Speech and made a rare televised address to the nation. The reviews of both the speech and the address came fast and were almost unanimous: what a waste of time.

After wasting six weeks – with Parliament prorogued – where he could have worked with Parliament on real solutions for Canadians, Justin Trudeau failed to offer a clear path forward.

As a result, Canadians continue to face significant uncertainty, and many struggle to make ends meet.

The speech itself was full of Liberal buzzwords, in fact the Throne Speech – possibly the most important in our nation’s recent history – did little but trot out promises the Liberals have been making since the mid 90’s.

The Speech failed to paint a clear picture of how the Liberals intend to keep Canadians healthy while ensuring Canada’s swift economic recovery following the impact of COVID-19.

The Speech failed to demonstrate how the Liberals will move from words to action at a time when Canadians gravely need the latter.

In particular, the Liberals ignored a key request from provincial premiers, including Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister, to increase funding for health care services. Instead of providing provinces with the resources they need to keep their citizens healthy, the Liberals continued to display an “Ottawa-knows-best” attitude that will see more decisions taken by the federal government, far away from those most impacted by their choices.

The Speech was also silent on addressing the combined impact of COVID-19 and the Liberal Carbon Tax on our agriculture sector and failed to respond to growing concerns about western alienation and national unity.

There was also no effort made to establish a clear fiscal framework as Justin Trudeau racks up record debt, asking the generations of tomorrow to pay his bills today.

Justin Trudeau’s failure to address these important issues made it impossible to support his Throne Speech.

Likewise, his national address held nothing new or of substance – unless you count the PM’s misguided attempt to cancel Thanksgiving. Just the same fearmongering mixed with Liberal talking points that have permeated Canadian media for the past seven months. In fact, most commentators, agreed that the “address” contained “absolutely nothing that couldn’t have been announced in any normal press briefing” or dare I say, the House of Commons – assuming he still remembers where that is.

As one commentator put it: “Trudeau’s speech was not only unnecessary, it was bizarre.”

Another compared it to a sitcom speech, calling it “glib, compelling and meaningless,” going on to say the speech sounded “pretty good, until you give it the bare minimum of critical thought.”

It was all a typically Trudeau waste of time, long on style and short on substance.

Canadians deserve better.

Under the leadership of Erin O’Toole, Canada’s Conservatives are offering a serious, compassionate, and ethical government-in-waiting. A government that has the back of Canadians. We will continue to fight for a credible plan to keep Canadians safe and aid our economic recovery.