Monday in the House, and the benches slowly filled up before QP was about to get started, but Elizabeth May was the only leader present. As well, it was Deputy Speaker Joe Comartin in the Chair, and the Wooden Mace on the table. That left it up to Megan Leslie to lead off for the NDP, wondering about Julian Fantino’s union-bashing rather than supporting veterans. Parm Gill, Fantino’s parliamentary secretary, insisted that veterans would be better off with the new system as there would be more home delivery of service. Leslie moved onto the topic of CSE using airport Wifi to track travellers, to which Rob Nicholson repeated the talking point that the CSE Commissioner found their activities to be within the law. Jack Harris repeated the same again in English, not that he got a different answer. For the Liberals, Wayne Easter carried on with the questions of CSE’s activities, but Nicholson’s answers didn’t change. When Easter brought up the Commissioner’s report in which he stated that some of the activities may have been directed at Canadians in contravention of the law, Nicholson’s answers didn’t budge from their script. Marc Garneau have one last attempt at the question in French, but Nicholson insisted that CSE was in the business of protecting Canadians, and that should have the support of the Liberals.

Round two, and Nycole Turmel and Craig Scott asked why Pierre Poilievre didn’t consult the Chief Electoral Officer on the new election reform bill (Poilievre: I did consult him), Randall Garrison and Rosane Doré Lefebvre asked about RCMP cuts to police services (James: We are taking steps to streamline the delivery of forensic services), Guy Caron asked about a Korean War memorial in his riding (Gill: Bring it to my attention), Irene Mathyssen, Sylvain Chicoine and Peter Stoffer returned to the issue of the closed veterans centres (Gill: Many of these closed centres are in the same building as Service Canada centres). Garneau was back up to keep up the questions on veterans centre closures (Gill: Your critic disrespected veterans!), and Joyce Murray and Rodger Cuzner carried on, Cuzner pointing to veterans sitting in the gallery during his question, not that Gill’s answers changed. Peggy Nash demanded support for limiting ATM fees (Sorensen: We have provided record income support for low-income Canadians), and Chris Charlton sounded the alarm about free trade with South Korea and the effect on the auto sector (O’Toole: We have seen losses as other countries signed their deals, so we are trying protecting trade).

Round three saw questions on healthcare wait times, the shift in priority from anti-smoking advocacy to combatting contraband, the long-delayed greenhouse gas regulations for the oil and gas industry, the coming expiration of existing Labour Market Agreements, the closure of passenger rail in New Brunswick, targeted sanctions on the Ukrainian president and his officials, bureaucratic delays with provincial skills programmes, refugee healthcare cuts, and Arthur Porter remaining in the Privy Council while Conrad Black was kicked out.

Overall, it was a pretty sedate day, with more of the horrendous practice of alternating the same questions in English and French, so that an answer given in one language is not followed up on but rather the question resets and the preamble repeated. Reciting scripts is not debate, but rather, it debases the entire exercise of QP.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Michelle Rempel for a black dress with a brown and black leather jacket and black knee-high Doc Marten boots, and to James Bezan for a dark grey suit with a lavender shirt and a dark purple tie and pocket square. Style citations go out to José Nunez-Melo for a tan suit with a dark grey shirt and peach tie, and to Ève Péclet for a grey and pink horizontally striped dress with a wide black elasticised belt.