The first QP of 2014 was ready to get underway, and Members’ Statements were dominated by Holocaust Remembrance Day statements and condolences for the lives lost in the Quebec nursing home fire. Before things got started, the four new MPs got marched into the House by both Justin Trudeau and Stephen Harper, and they took their seats. Mulcair started off by wishing everyone a Happy New Year, and asked his first question about the situation in Ukraine. Harper assured him that they too were concerned about it. Mulcair moved onto the suicide crisis within the Canadian Forces, and wondered if the PM would make this a personal priority. Harper assured him of the quality of mental health programmes available to members of the Forces. Moving on, Mulcair asked banking and ATM fees — a topic of his “affordability tour.” Harper gave some bland assurances, before Mulcair moved onto a question of Access to Information documents around the Senate scandal that the Privy Council Office refused to release — which makes sense as they are almost certainly legal opinions, given that the Senate is not a government department, and legal opinions are protected information. Harper insisted that the ATIP process is independent of government. Mulcair’s last turn was to bring up the alleged mortgage fraud perpetuated by retired Senator Mac Harb, which has absolutely nothing to do with government business. But rather than the Speaker shutting down such a blatantly out of bounds question, Harper got up and noted the independence of the RCMP’s investigations. Justin Trudeau was up, and noted that the provinces had rejected the Canada Job Grant programme, and wondered if the government would abandon it. Harper said that they remained committed to closing the skills gap across the country. Trudeau hammered away at the issue with his remaining questions, but Harper insisted that they were doing their part for job creation.
Round two, and Mulcair returned to the outstanding ClusterDuff affair questions, and wondered about contact that the RCMP has had with PMO (Harper: We haven’t been contacted), why was Senator Gerstein still in caucus (Harper: He’s not under investigation), Nathan Cullen asked about Chuck Strahl’s lobbying activities (Harper: He wasn’t forced to resign and the Ethics Commissioner cleared his activities), Megan Leslie asked about Cheryl Gallant’s lightbulb ban donation scheme (Calandra: She was representing her constituents’ concerns), Charlie Angus brought up the issue of Shelly Glover’s fundraiser (Glover: I didn’t plan it and I’m assisting the Ethics Commissioner in her investigation), before he moved onto more Nigel Wright allegations (Calandra: The PM demonstrated high ethical standards), and Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe returned to the question of those ATIP requests from the PCO (Calandra: There are established rules for ATIP requests). Ralph Goodale asked about sanctions for the leadership in the Ukraine (Anderson: We support the people of Ukraine speaking out for their democracy), Emmanuel Dubourg asked about the job loss figures (Flaherty: We’re the second-best place in the world to do business after Hong Kong), and Scott Brison wanted a jobs plan for young Canadians (Flaherty: We’ve created lots of full-time jobs). Jack Harris and Élaine Michaud returned to the issue of soldier suicides (Nicholson: We have made this a priority), and Sylvain Chicoine and Peter Stoffer asked about the closure of veteran offices (Gill: We have made improvements to veterans benefits!)
Round three saw questions on low corporate tax rates, the loss of rail passenger service in the east, the status of the electoral reform bill, government spending on advertising, ice storm compensation for the GTA, temporary foreign workers stealing Canadian jobs, toxic dust at the Quebec port, the Quebec demanding more say over foreign students, the dismantling of government libraries, and the Supreme Court ruling around prostitution laws.
Overall, it was nice to see everyone back, but it wasn’t a terribly edifying day. Mulcair was scattershot in his questions, and asked a number of questions which had no relation to government business, and the Speaker didn’t say anything, nor with the questions around Senator Gerstein being in caucus or Cheryl Gallant’s fundraising activities, neither of which are government business, though he did speak up with the Liberals asked about Elections Canada investigations. It would have been nice to have some more consistency with those cautions, for what it’s worth. Oh, and Liberals — Elections Canada doesn’t report to the Minister of State for Democratic Reform, so don’t ask him about their investigations.
Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Lisa Raitt for a fitted grey dress with a black sweater, and to Emmanuel Dubourg for a tailored black suit with a white shirt and burgundy tie. Style citations go out to James Bezan for a tan grey suit with a white shirt, teal blue striped tie and grey pocket square, and to Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe for a blue and black paisley tunic over a black skirt and tights. Special mention goes out to Chrystia Freeland for her now (in)famous red dress, which she either wears to every event or has a Superman’s closet full of.
