Madam Speaker, in certain respects it has been a weird fall. Right now, as colleagues know, we are in Adjournment Proceedings, which is when we can follow up on questions asked earlier in question period.
A few weeks back, I asked about the government's plan to triple the carbon tax, therefore increasing the cost of gas, groceries, home heating and other goods that increasingly feel out of reach for many Canadians. In these times, the finance minister's way of saying that she feels their pain is to acknowledge that she has also had to make sacrifices by cancelling her Disney+ subscription. If that cancellation gets her out of the fantasy world she has been living in, then I think it is a good thing. Ironically, though, video streaming services are one of the only things that will not be affected by carbon tax increases.
Earlier this fall, I asked a question of the government about its carbon tax plans and I inserted into my question some of the lyrics from Bohemian Rhapsody. This is because shortly before the Prime Minister had gone to London, ostensibly to attend the Queen's funeral. He had stayed in a hotel room that cost $6,000 a night and stayed up late singing Bohemian Rhapsody in a bar somewhere. One could get a lot of Disney+ for $6,000 a night, but of course this was taxpayers' money. If I had spent $6,000 a night of someone else's money on a hotel room, I would have at least had the decency to stay in and enjoy it.
I put some Bohemian Rhapsody lyrics into my original question and it got a lot of attention on social media, I think, for three distinct reasons. First, it may have been the question itself. Second, there was an unexpected camera angle. Third was the fact that a member of the parliamentary press gallery thought the question was so lame that I should be shot like a horse. This suggests to me that he knows as much about the care of animals as he does politics.
This series of events was so unusual that it left me wondering:
Is this the real life? Or is this just fantasy?
Disney+ pushed aside; that's the finance minister's new reality.
New vacation highs, flying through the skies for free.
Liberal caucus plots, I have some sympathy.
Foreign ministers have been easy come, easy go
Little high, little low.
Foreign interference doesn't really matter to them.
Mama, a journalist just threatened to kill a man.
(Wait, he's not a journalist.)
Mama, a Liberal staffer with a press gallery pass just threatened to kill a man.
(Of course, I don't mean literally a Liberal staffer but figuratively. He's not literally a Liberal staffer.)
Mama, my career had just began, but Dale Smith wants to blow it all away.
If I'm not back again this time tomorrow.
Carry on, carry on.
I see it is late and my time is almost gone, so I will conclude my remarks there and await the government's fandango of a response.