On Thursday's Rebel Roundup, hosts Lise Merle and Tamara Ugolini reacted to Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne's budget-day shoe reveal, hours before Budget 2026 was tabled in the House of Commons.

Finance ministers often pick a new pair of shoes to wear on budget day, usually with a message attached. Champagne toured a shoe factory in Montreal, and the pair he showed off reportedly costs about $500.

“What we see here is an extraordinarily entitled man, okay, putting on a pair of shoes that the rest of us would only wear at a wedding, and that's once in our lives,” Lise said.

At the factory, Champagne praised the owner's immigrant success story and tied it to his budget's slogan. “It's all about innovation. It's all about hard work. It's all about, you know, like the title of our budget, we said, you know, masters of our destiny,” he said.

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Tamara said that story no longer matches what newcomers find. “You have immigrants coming to this country on the promise of getting a better life, of having opportunity and being able to work hard and get ahead, and they're leaving because that Canadian dream is no longer the Canadian reality,” she explained. “Not only that he's getting a $500 pair of boots when Canadians are struggling and lining up in record numbers at food banks, but that Canadian dream that he's referencing and trying to sell people on is no longer the reality here in Canada.”

The panel also played Conservative MP Michael Chong pressing the government in question period. “The previous Liberal government over the last decade blew through every single fiscal anchor they had established,” Chong said, asking whether the prime minister would confirm the parliamentary budget officer's projection that the budget would blow through the new ones too.

The government's reply pointed to “over 60 billion in government savings” and said Ottawa is “on track to balance the operating budget a year ahead of schedule.” The hosts called the exchange a deflection.

Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman raised the toll on household budgets. “Yesterday, the Salvation Army reported that one-third of Canadians are skipping meals or cutting their portions, up almost 30% from just last year,” she said. “Food bank visits have hit 2.35 million in a month, and that's double from 2019.”

“Canadians skipping meals. Okay, skipping meals. That's how poor our economy is right now,” Lise said.

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