Commentary
It was high drama during a recent meeting of what is typically a sedate parliamentary agriculture committee.
With weeks of pressure, MPs managed to get some CEOs of Canada’s largest grocers to appear before the committee to explain their recent profit levels. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh had been attacking Canadian grocers for days using loaded terms such as “greedflation” and was promising to hold those dastardly corporate heads to account.
Singh arrived at the March 8 committee meeting with a flourish and was carrying a massive stack of papers containing questions from 2,000 Canadians concerned about grocery prices. The stage was set for fireworks and some top-quality political theatre. Alas, Mr. Singh’s carefully crafted production flopped as Loblaw president Galen Weston and other representatives calmly explained how the grocery prices were beyond their control….