It’s Thomas Mulcair’s birthday, not that he was really going to get any answers out of Harper as a gift for the occasion. Mulcair began by asking a rather lengthy question around the stonewalling around what Nigel Wright knew, but Harper insisted that Wright kept the whole affair to himself. Mulcair brought up Ray Novak and Marjory LeBreton’s alleged call to Mike Duffy telling him that the deal was off. Harper responded that Mulcair was buying into the story that Duffy was the victim rather than the fact of the misspending that got him booted from caucus. When Mulcair tried to clarify whether or not Harper had singled out Duffy at the caucus meeting in February, Harper said that the spending of the three senators was brought up in caucus and he made his emphatic statement then. When Mulcair asked when Harper did threaten to expel Duffy from the Senate, Harper reiterated that rule-breakers had no place in caucus. Leading for the Liberals was Dominic LeBlanc, as Justin Trudeau was speaking away speaking in Washington DC. LeBlanc asked why one former PMO staffer who was involved was promoted despite potentially criminal behaviour. Harper responded by calling out Liberal senators for holding up the suspension without pay of those three senators. LeBlanc pushed, bringing up or their questionable hires by the PMO, but Harper kept insisting that the Liberal senators were keeping those misbehaving from being punished (which is of course false, as they are simply looking to put it to committee to give it due process).

Mulcair was back up for round two, and demanded to know why other people weren’t fired from the PMO for their participation (Harper: Wright told few people and took responsibility), asked about the threats of expulsion made to Duffy (Harper: If you can’t follow rules or accept standards of behaviour you’re not welcome in caucus), he asked if Senator Stewart-Olsen is being protected despite having similar claims against her — which is not entirely true (Harper: Now you’re just throwing mud and losing ground), he asked about the travel that Wallin and Duffy made on the taxpayer’s dime (Harper: They were expected to follow the rules around travel), he made the giant conflation around Senators’ travel during the quarter of an election (Harper: Stop trying to pretend that senators are non-partisan, but there are rules around travel), he mused about the plans for senate reform (Harper: usual bafflegab). Ralph Goodale was up next and returned to the coordination of the campaign around Duffy to protect him from the audit (Calandra: The Prime Minister was clear that he wanted Duffy to repay his expenses), Goodale wondered about staff incompetence that it took months for this stuff to come to Harper’s attention (Calandra: You guys are blocking reform!) and when Goodale pressed, Calandra noted that Duffy went on TV to make false claims. Robert Aubin asked about a public servant being fired for whistleblowing around the imposition of EI quotas (Bergen: This was a department decision that we support), and Robert Chisholm brought up the hardship being brought to those on fishing incomes when it comes to EI (Bergen: That error is being corrected in the new budget implementation bill), before another exchange over the fired Service Canada employee.

Round three saw questions on the reduction of export controls on arms and military equipment, the sale of a small wireless company to Telus, the funding gap for First Nations students, nickel dust, why Canada hasn’t resumed aid to Mali when other countries have, the changes to public service labour rights in the budget bill, the mistaken deportation of a family to Libya, and when the topic of a Senate seat for Duffy was first discussed (no response to that one).

Overall things kept up a good pace today and there were some decent exchanges, but Mulcair’s line of questioning did start to reach, especially in his conflation of accusations against other Senators or claiming that their travel expenses “exploded” during an election (which was not true – those were for the full quarter and some Senators still do work during a writ period as they’re not affected by the election cycle). Still, it was good to see Harper on his feet again today as much as he was, though not as punchy as he was on Wednesday. We can’t really expect this level of energy to last, so we should enjoy it while it lasts.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Rick Dykstra for a black suit with a crisp white shirt with French cuffs and a pink-and-black striped tie, and to Cathy McLeod for a red ruched top with a black jacket. Style citations go out to Linda Duncan for a dress-length orange jacket with a black gear-like pattern across it, and to Pierre Lemieux for a black suit with a reddish-pink shirt and cranberry tie. Dishonourable mentions go out to Rosane Doré Lefebvre for a yellow too and a black jacket, and to Bal Gosal for a black suit with a pale yellow shirt and brown and yellow tie.