Despite being back in the country, Stephen Harper remained out of the House for QP — not that his absence was enough for Thomas Mulcair to change his script, as he read questions designed to be asked of the Prime Minister. James Moore, the designated back-up PM du jour, insisted that the Prime Minister was demonstrating accountability (despite not being at QP, which is the prime moment of accountability every day), that the NDP should get on board with Senate “reform,” and by the way, your MPs aren’t paying their taxes. Mulcair moved onto questions on CSIS not passing along information on Jeffrey Delisle to the RCMP while he passed along classified intelligence, but Vic Toews rebutted by saying that the media story made the wrong conclusions, and by the way, your MPs aren’t paying their taxes. Justin Trudeau was up next for the Liberals, and brought up the fact that they would be moving a motion in the Ethics Committee to study the Wright/Duffy affair, and would the government have their MPs in that committee vote to support the motion so that the air can be cleared. Moore rebutted with the non-sequitur of Trudeau’s comments on the Senate — taking it all out of context, of course. Trudeau then brought up the Federal Court ruling around misleading robocalls, not that Moore changed his answer of attacking Trudeau.

Round two started with Charlie Angus, Alexandre Boulerice and Lysanne Blanchette-Lamothe demanding answers on who in the PMO was aware of the Wright cheque (Moore: How can you lecture about ethics when your own MPs don’t pay their taxes?), Françoise Boivin brought Ray Novak’s name into the mix (Moore: Nigel Wright said he acted alone — err, except that he didn’t. Wright said that he accepted sole responsibility, which is not the same thing). Bob Rae asked about the rules on natural justice with regards to the Senators changing the Duffy audit (Moore: The committee has Liberal members on it to ask their own questions), and they went back and forth on the matter, Moore insisting that Liberals on the committee could have filed a dissenting report, which the Liberal benches shouted back to him that the rules wouldn’t allow it. Randall Garrison and Rosane Doré Lefebvre returned to the issue the the revelations around Delisle and CSIS (Toews: The conclusions are incorrect as are your allegations), and Alexandrine Latendresse and Craig Scott returned to the Federal Court ruling on the robocall matter (Uppal: You broke election rules with union donations, and we’ll have a bill soon).

Round three saw questions on appointments to the new Social Security Tribunal, new immigration regulations, more on the Federal Court ruling, yet more about Nigel Wright, job losses at a communications company which declared bankruptcy in the States instead of Canada, support for tourism by supporting major events, and smaller wireless companies being swallowed up by the big three giants.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Michelle Rempel for an off-white dress with black and light blue panels, and to Bal Gosal for a black suit with a pink shirt and tie. Style citations go out to Raymond Côté for a slate coloured suit with a cranberry shirt and striped tie, and to Chris Charlton for a yellow jacket with a black top and trousers. Dishonourable mention goes out to Isabelle Morin for a shapeless mustard top with black trousers.