Today's News: Parliament opens without fireworks, plus a regional roundup of interesting news, and more about Charlie Kirk

First up, Parliament resumed sitting, and journalist Dale Smith thought Monday's Carney-Poilievre Show was a little less vile than the Trudeau-Poilievre Show had been. But give it time!

...Overall, it was not an acrimonious day, but one where the civility and friendliness was perhaps slightly more cutting than it appeared on the surface. Carney was gracious enough in welcoming Poilievre back to the Chamber, and Poilievre repaid it by saying that Carney is just like Trudeau. It was a day where the message tracks were laid out well in advance, and each side knew it. The Conservatives have been telegraphing for months that they will be trying to pin food price inflation on Carney, because he (stupidly) said that his effectiveness would be measured by the cost of groceries, and so they hammered that question over and over and over today, so that they could get clips of it. And how did the Liberals respond? Not by talking about the causes of food price inflation (mostly climate change), but rather by saying that housing was the biggest cost item in a household and they were bringing down those costs (and patting themselves on the back for it. They could have driven the point home with the Conservatives that climate change is the primary driver of those prices, and that’s why there is an economic cost to climate change, but they didn’t do that (maybe because that would force them to actually come up with a real climate plan after Carney has been dismantling what is in place). Suffice to say, it was weak as a response, and they just walked into the plainly obvious trap that was laid for them, so good luck with that.
Otherwise, it was just a bunch more slogans and tag-lines (“He’s just another Liberal prime minister,” “broken promises,” etc) because everything was about getting clips. As usual. Only one Liberal minister actually bothered to call bullshit on the question he was asked, which was Sean Fraser on the bail laws....

Conservatives demand that the government should have brought down food prices. How, exactly? Price controls? #ZapYoureFrozen #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) September 15, 2025 at 1:08 PM

Lantsman railing that Canadians are getting “fleeced” at the grocery store as if the problem wasn’t climate change affecting food-producing regions. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) September 15, 2025 at 12:39 PM

Tom Mulcair on CTV:

"...Poilievre was holding back a little... Carney good, on some questions very good, but seemed to be caught off guard on the short time frame...Carney is moving away from Trudeau's tendency to flash left even if ultimately he turned right .... but Caucus is sensitive to the enviroment promises made for future generations."

Susan Delacourt in the Toronto Star:

...They are definitely aspiring to present themselves as different — for Carney, that’s not just being different from his old, pre-political self, but from his predecessor, Justin Trudeau. For Poilievre, it means toning down the aggressive, attack-dog posture, one he pulled off so well that Canadians rewarded him in the last election with a mandate to stay in opposition.
...This was a chance to see how Carney and Poilievre are going to deal with each other in the weeks and months ahead, and where each thinks the other’s vulnerabilities lie. Both are clearly banking on the idea that Canadians wanted change and that their opponent is failing to deliver it.
They’re not wrong about the desire for change. Canadians, the pollsters keep telling us, don’t want business as usual as a response to a world in constant turmoil. The same turmoil, though, sets up a tension that dominated the last election, between change and a desire for stability.
If that tension still exists in Canada today, the opening question period captured it. Everyone is trying to be different — to a degree — but when it comes to performing the theatre of politics, everyone can’t help being a bit of the same.

And here's an interesting summary of the recent NDP retreat, as they try to find a new way. Though there are only seven NDP MPs now, I believe Carney is going to need every one of their votes to get his budget through:

The NDP held onto Jagmeet Singh for too long. He attacked former PM Trudeau in a very “conservative” way. 🪶😡🇨🇦🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

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— Blackfoot Niitsítapi 🪶🇨🇦🇺🇸🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️💙🌎🐝 (@thoughtsnations.bsky.social) September 14, 2025 at 9:42 PM

I didn't realize the Liberals had selected a comedian as house leader:

"We are in a minority Parliament and we will be looking to all parties and all MPs for collaboration. There is a lot of work to do this fall. And this place works best when we work together," says Govt House Leader Steven MacKinnon as the House of Commons returns. #cdnpoli

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— CPAC TV (@cpac.ca) September 15, 2025 at 8:44 AM

Convoy rising!

The convoy crowd keeping it classy as always to welcome the MPs back to Parliament. Shameful not even describes the signs they show up there with. ❤️🍁🇨🇦TEAM CANADA FOREVER🇨🇦🍁❤️ ❤️🍁🇨🇦VIVE LE CANADA 🇨🇦🍁❤️

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— 🍁🇨🇦Team Canada Forever🇨🇦🍁 (@teamcanadaforever.bsky.social) September 15, 2025 at 10:28 AM

They have forgotten the lesson we taught them in 2022:

Next, some news from around the country:

Seems like Canada has political party leadership problems all over:

NEW - The BC Conservatives have cancelled a scheduled caucus meeting in Kelowna on Thursday. Leader John Rustad was asked to leave caucus on Friday after concerns were raised about membership sales. When he was gone, MLAs expressed concerns about keeping Rustad as leader. #bcpoli

— Richard Zussman (@richardzussman.bsky.social) September 15, 2025 at 4:34 PM

👀👀 I’ve been on this file since about 2018. Never read something quite like this before. Give it your time, #Ableg. #cdnpoli too. And props to @drewanderson.bsky.social thenarwhal.ca/alberta-oil-...

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— Martin Z. Olszynski (@molszyns.bsky.social) September 15, 2025 at 8:41 AM

“Kenney said he also knows that separatism is, and always has been, the rallying cry for a tiny core of flighty, discontented Albertans. "We're talking about at most a few thousand people" How far off the rails are we now Kenney is a voice of reason? www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

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— The Breakdown AB (@thebreakdownab.bsky.social) September 15, 2025 at 11:42 AM

This was sad news:

‘Extremely hard decision’: Pride March in Manitoba cancelled due to threats, organizers say www.ctvnews.ca/winnipeg/art...

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— 🇨🇦 Tony MacIntyre 🇺🇦 (@poohbear1985.bsky.social) September 15, 2025 at 8:21 PM

I was stunned last night when I saw Crombie's speech saying she was staying on as Ontario Liberal leader. Wiser heads prevailed and Crombie is gone.

Person you forgot was Ontario Liberal Party leader no longer Ontario Liberal Party leader thebeaverton.com/2025/09/pers...

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— The Beaverton (@thebeaverton.com) September 15, 2025 at 12:47 PM

Evan Scrimshaw writes: 

...What we need most from our next leader is a culture of accountability. We need a new leader to make clear that good enough isn’t good enough. We need a high standard to be brought and sustained in the OLP for the first time since we let Wynne hang around when everyone with a brain knew she had lost the province. We have indulged well intentioned failure for too long that it risks being our default state.
I refuse to let that happen.
Today was a good day for the OLP, because it was the beginning of our ability to tear this shit down to the studs and rebuild it...

Great start to the Karina for Leader campaign! https://t.co/vc0Ofc4sI1

— Evan Scrimshaw (@EScrimshaw) September 15, 2025

Moving on - or not really:

Hey everybody, now Canada has its very own Big Stuck Ship!https://t.co/HqMohJos1Q

— Cathie from Canada 🇨🇦 ✍🏻😷🏳️‍🌈 🇺🇦 (@CathieCanada) September 16, 2025

And I had never heard of this sculpture before, but it is beautiful:

In 2009-2011, Artist Daphne Mennell and welder Roger Poole turned a pile of assorted scrap metal into one of the most-loved pieces of public art in Whitehorse, Yukon. Many of those pieces have people's memories and stories invisibly attached. <3 www.daphnemennellyukonart.com/the-horse

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— Murray Lundberg 🇨🇦 (@explorenorth.bsky.social) September 14, 2025 at 3:57 AM

In other events, Canadians across the country are mostly annoyed by Parliament standing for Charlie Kirk, whose murder was very sad but whose offensive and racist opinions don't deserve Canada's respect.

Jesus Christ. A standing ovation — from Liberals too — for Charlie Kirk in the Canadian House of Commons. You can (and should) oppose political violence without doing all this, you know.

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— Rachel Gilmore (@rachelgilmore.bsky.social) September 15, 2025 at 1:29 PM

It did not surprise me to see that Chrystia Freeland didn't stand. Saskboy noticed that too:

Yes the CPC led this, but why did the Liberals (aside from Freeland, and hopefully others) follow?! #cdnpoli

— Saskboy from Saskatchewan (@saskboy.bsky.social) September 15, 2025 at 11:04 PM

But here's another view of what happened today:

Please don’t do this, Charlie Angus and Rachel Gilmore. The statement was overwhelmingly about the importance of rejecting all violence in political discourse and disagreements, and it ended with an expression of sympathy for the widow and her children. That is what the standing ovation was for. To interpret that as a standing ovation “for Charlie Kirk” is inflammatory nonsense. And we have no need of more inflammatory nonsense.

- Dan Gardner

Read on Substack

Brittlestar explains why what Parliament did was wrong:

To be clear… No one deserves to die for being a dick. At the same time, no dick deserves to be lauded just because they’re dead. www.brittlestar.com/p/what-to-do...

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— Brittlestar (@brittlestar.com) September 13, 2025 at 10:04 AM

He writes:

...So, what do you do when someone awful dies?
You skip the melodrama.
You hold your tongue (if only briefly).
And, if you need to, you read this satirical guide for emotional support and plausible deniability at the wake.
1. Don’t Apologize for Not Crying
Your tear ducts aren’t malfunctioning. They’re accurately calibrated.
You didn’t cry when Sears closed, either.
And at least Sears offered something of value.
2. It’s Okay to Feel... Okay
Think of it like when a neighbour with a leafblower moves away.
You don’t cheer… but you do open the windows more often.
3. You Don’t Have to Lie
No one’s asking you to tweet, “I’ll miss their passion.”
Especially when that “passion” involved expressing how, gosh, as luck would have it, their ethnicity is the only good one and the rest are inferior.
4. No Toast Necessary
There is no moral law requiring a toast.
You can simply say, “Welp,” and sip your drink in peace.
5. Reflect, Don’t Repeat
Use their death as a reminder to not be the person everyone is relieved to lose.
Be the kind of person who earns real grief.
Not just a politely murmured: “Huh. So that happened.”
Remember:
Just because someone dies doesn’t mean you owe them a rewrite.
Not every person was secretly misunderstood.
Some were just… loud and wrong....
And maybe use this moment to make sure when you die, people will raise a glass to your memory.

But the whole story is getting more bizarre by the day:

View on Threads

The funny thing now is this - the right-wing is seeing deeper right-wing conspiracies in Charlie Kirk's assassination. I guess this falls into the category of "live by the sword, die by the sword".

They see conflict at every turn We don’t So the eaters of the dead are eating themselves

- Wendy The Druid 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🌈

Read on Substack

At The Bulwark, journalist Will Somer writes:

ON THE SURFACE, the MAGA movement appears to be united after the murder of prominent activist and conservative media figure Charlie Kirk. They’re getting people fired from their jobs for social media posts that made light of, or even celebrated, Kirk’s death. They’re cruising the streets to demand random businesses lower their flags in his honor. And they’re plotting how to attack the institutions of the left, with Trump deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller vowing Monday to pursue a “vast domestic terror movement” targeting liberal foes.
Yet beneath that façade of unity, that appetite of anger, and that thirst for retribution, cracks are emerging as the always-paranoid right is pulled apart by conspiracy theories about Kirk’s murder and a sense that the Trump administration isn’t telling the truth about it.
After the arrest of suspect Tyler Robinson was announced on Friday, prominent right-wing media figures began to complain that the Trump administration couldn’t be telling the public the real story, noting that Robinson was a young white man from a Mormon family with no immediately clear political affiliations that could have inspired the shooting....

The whole article is worth reading. Somers ends:

 ...many of these people are prone to seeing Deep State actors behind every corner, including when it’s their allies running the investigations and the government itself. Alex Jones protégé Owen Shroyer, who recently quit Jones’s InfoWar to go independent, said backlash to the Justice Department’s closure of the Jeffrey Epstein case has meant more skepticism about the account of Kirk’s shooting.
“Now it just feels like a coverup on top of a coverup on top of a coverup,” Shroyer said in a video on Monday.

Meanwhile, back in reality:

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— George Conway 👊🇺🇸🔥 (@gtconway.bsky.social) September 14, 2025 at 7:49 AM