Monday after a constituency week, and kicking off budget week, Members’ Statements were dominated by sniping back and forth over Thomas Mulcair’s trip to Washington last week. QP started off with Thomas Mulcair reading questions about the upcoming budget being full of “corporate giveaways for their buddies.” James Moore, the designated back-up PM du jour, read some good news talking points before he too accused Mulcair of “selling out” the country in Washington. On his second supplemental, Mulcair bizarrely accused the government of “listening to Tom Flanagan,” which Moore ignored in his response. Mulcair took all the slots in the leader’s round, moving onto Peter Penashue’s election expenses. Moore responded that Penashue took responsibility and stepped down. Leading off for the Liberals was leadership contender Joyce Murray, who kept on about the Penashue resignation. Moore repeated that Penashue took responsibility and stepped down, before adding a gratuitous “Where is the stolen $40 million?” For her final supplemental, Murray asked about the muzzling of scientists and federal archivists and librarians. Moore insisted that it simply was not the case, and said that the directive to staff was independent of government, and doesn’t bar them from speaking publicly.
Round two started off with Randall Garrison asking about a group calling for the abolition of provincial firearms officers (Toews: We put three new individuals on the firearms advisory body), and he and Rosane Doré Lefebvre moved onto the topic of the reality show filming CBSA officers (Toews: Privacy concerns are being respected and illegal immigrants cost Canadians millions of dollars and thousands of jobs), Alexandre Latendresse and Robert Chisholm returned to the issue of Peter Penashue (Poilievre: He took responsibility and stepped down), Charlie Angus brought up his call for the Senate Ethics Officer to be brought before a committee — as though said officer was an agent of government rather than of the Senate itself (Poilievre: That’s not a question for us), before he and Alexandre Boulerice asked about corrupt political financing in Quebec (Poilievre: You and your leader know more about donations in Quebec). Scott Andrews returned to the Penashue issue — getting it wrong when he said that taxpayer funds were used to repay Penashue’s ineligible donations, as it was party funds (Poilievre: Your caucus is full of people who break robocall rules), before he asked why Dean Del Mastro was still sitting if he also broke those same donation rules (Poilevre: More of the same), and Stéphane Dion wondered why they would call the by-election before Elections Canada completed their investigation (Poilievre: Yet more of the same). Peggy Nash asked about the contents of the budget rewarding “their friends” (Menzies: Wait four more sleeps for the budget), and Anne-Marie Day and Chris Charlton asked about appointments to the new Social Security tribunals (Finley: We make appointments based on merit).
Round three saw questions on the Experimental Lakes Area, funding for military family resource centres, funding obligations for First Nations, the CBSA reality show, the code of new conduct at Library and Archives, EI changes for seasonal workers, the Supreme Court ruling on the Manitoba Métis, and funding for a police officer recruitment fund and Economic Development Quebec.
Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Maxime Bernier for a tailored dark grey suit with a light blue shirt and tie, and to Michelle Rempel for a black and white fitted dress with pink and green quasi-floral patterns. Style citations go out to Subcommander Boivin for her large grey boxy Romulan jacket, and to Bal Gosal for a black suit with a yellow shirt and tie.
