As is becoming the new norm on Mondays, Thomas Mulcair was the only main leader in the House, which meant that another soul-crushing day of Paul Calandra talking points was on the way — though one could always hope for a day free of innuendo and accusation as which happened on Friday (though we could also do without his wounded complaints about how the press didn’t like his answers). Once QP got started, Mulcair immediately asked about the reappearance of those emails from Benjamin Perrin, and asked why the story changed yet again. Pierre Poilievre took this one, somewhat surprisingly, and he quoted from the letter from PCO. Mulcair asked about the “unrelated litigation” that Perrin was involved in. Poilievre indicated that he wasn’t sure, but that they were cooperating with the RCMP. Mulcair pressed, but Poilievre simply reread from the letter. When Mulcair wondered wondered an bout the integrity of the he evidence after the government has been holding onto it for three months, and Poilievre again reiterated a passage from the letter. Dominic LeBlanc led off for the Liberals, and wanted assurances that nobody had access to those emails who was in a position to doctor or selectively delete them in any way. Poilievre assured him that they were cooperating with the RCMP. LeBlanc wondered if Harper was waiting of it all to go to trial everything was made public, but Poilievre answered with a single no.

Round two, and Chris Charlton and Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe asked about the complicity of Senator Carolyn Stewart-Olsen (Calandra: We released those emails because we are assisting the RCMP), Ève Péclet shouted a question about the cheque for Duffy’s legal expenses (Calandra: It is not unusual for a party to help with legal expenses), Charlie Angus found it incredulous that PCO would fumble so badly and asked when the PM last spoke with Benjamin Perrin (Calandra: I’m not in a position to know that), and if Perrin left on his own accord (Calandra: I believe he left to pursue a job as a law professor). Judy Foote asked if the Senate would call Michael Runia before committee to testify (Calandra: The Senate is in charge of its own affairs), David McGuinty asked if the Government would support a Liberal senate motion, but Scheer rightfully smacked it down as not having to do with the administrative responsibilities of government or of ministerial responsibility. McGuinty had a supplemental and asked why the attorney General had not asked the RCMP to investigate those who “offered an inducement” to a sitting senator (Calandra: The only people under investigation are Wright and Duffy). Hoang Mai and Olivia Chow asked about plans to replace the Champlain Bridge (Lebel: You voted against money to maintain the bridge), before Chow raised the fears of a “Lac Mégantic in the sky” because of fewer flight attendants (Raitt: This is the same ratio used in the US and Europe).

Round three saw questions on the NSA revelations at the G8/G20 (Nicholson: CSE is prohibited from targeting Canadians and can’t ask their partners to do it for them), a Canadian’s being denied at the border because of confidential medical information, veterans services, the refusal of the government to promote HIV treatment-as-prevention programmes, social media monitoring, the Quebec City’s CN bridge, the end of the EI fund board in C-4, a proposal for a local airport in Quebec, housing transfers for Quebec, and corporate tax rates.

Overall, it wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been, and we saw the return of Pierre Poilievre in place of Paul Calandra during the leader’s round. We again saw a couple of script failures today, where a question was answered, or in one case a promise to look into a situation was made, and yet the following question was the very same. It’s not that hard to ditch your scripts, MPs. You may want to consider it. I was also heartened to see that Speaker Scheer at least made some attempt at keeping the most egregious of out-of-bounds questions in check, but he needs to keep it up.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Bal Gosal for a black suit with a lavender shirt and purple and grey striped tie, and to Lisa Raitt for her black fitted leather jacket, with a dark blue top and black trousers. Style citations go out to Djaouia Sellah for a black jacket with overlapping orange, brown and grey polka dots, and to François Choquette for a too-pale orange shirt with a black suit and brown and gold patterned tie. Special mention goes out to Anne Quach for an orange collared shirt under a tight metallic patterned top that apparently came from the future. Or as one observer recounted, “It’s like what would happen if Uhura went to the Starfleet uniform commissary, but the regular tailor was on stress leave and had been replaced by the costumer from Disco Inferno that had arrived in said commissary via a wormhole paved with gold lamé.” I personally associate gold lamé with Buck Rogers, but that description works for me.