After a meeting, Blanchet now praises the courtesy of the senators

Photo: Adrian Wyld The Canadian Press Yves-Francois Blanchet during question period in Ottawa, November 20

After calling senators “obtuse,” “fanciful” and “the worst negotiators in history,” the leader of the Bloc Québécois instead showed esteem for them after a “frankly friendly” meeting, which gave him renewed hope that his bill on supply management would be adopted before the holidays.

“I did not sense any hostility of any kind. There is a very British gentlemanly side to the institution,” said Yves-François Blanchet, setting foot on the cracked marble floor of the foyer of the Senate building in Ottawa for the first time on Thursday.

The sovereignist leader in Ottawa was leaving a meeting attended by Peter Boehm and Peter Harder, both opposed to Bill C-282, which aims to protect the agricultural supply management system from future trade negotiations.

These two senators have been buffeted in recent weeks by Mr. Blanchet's words because of their desire to study the text, then amend it, within a Senate committee. This bill was passed by all parties in the House of Commons in June 2023, and its passage was demanded by the Bloc in exchange for support for the Liberal Party this fall.

Yves-François Blanchet had notably called them “two obtuse liberal senators who are clearly resistant to democracy” in October. Elected officials from all parties in Ottawa, including Liberal ministers, joined a farmers’ protest outside the Senate in October to demand that things be speeded up.

The conversations I [also] had with the various [Senate] leaders I met with are nothing like the circus in the House of Commons

— Yves-François Blanchet

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Possible before the holidays

But now, the Bloc leader has completely changed his tune about them on Thursday, reassured that he had obtained assurances that C-282 will return to the House of Commons in time to be adopted by elected officials before the holidays.

“I assure you I will never have a conversation with Mr. Poilievre that is as cordial. Frankly, it was nice,” he said of his discussions with Senators Boehm and Harder, both experts on international trade. Mr. Blanchet instead denigrated the climate in the elected chamber, which has been virtually paralyzed by a question of privilege since late September.

“The conversations I [also] had with the various [Senate] leaders I met with are nothing like the circus in the House of Commons,” he compared. Among MPs, “the smartest ones look like they have a Grade 3, low B. You don’t get to have an intelligent conversation in that building.”

Yves-François Blanchet was nonetheless keen to point out that he still advocates for the abolition of the Senate, an institution inspired by the House of Lords in the United Kingdom. However, he agreed on Thursday that “it’s not that serious” for parliamentarians in the upper house to issue advice or propose changes to bills. “The day Quebec becomes sovereign, there will be no Senate.”

A priority for the government as well

During question period on Wednesday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau assured that he would do everything in his power to enshrine in law the protection of supply management for dairy, poultry and eggs. In the meantime, he has promised that his government does not intend to sell off this system in trade negotiations.

The Prime Minister even allowed himself a joke by calling them “august senators,” before specifying with a smile that the description was “ironic.”

Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer dodged the question from Duty about whether Conservative senators were instructed to accept C-282 in its original form, without amendment. He argued that the vast majority of senators were appointed by the Trudeau government.

The upper chamber must still vote on whether to accept, or exclude, major amendments made to C-282 in committee that would exclude ongoing trade negotiations or renegotiations of existing treaties from the new rule. If it sends the amended text back, the House of Commons could then insist on passing the original version.

The fact that the New Democratic Party is proposing to support the Liberals in a one-day parliamentary freeze to vote on a temporary GST holiday, according to Yves-François Blanchet, proves that it is possible to agree piecemeal to make Parliament work, and thus obtain royal assent for Bill C-282, even if it comes back amended by the Senate.