It was a busy news day, with the Fair Elections Act tabled and charges laid against both Senator Patrick Brazeau and former senator Mac Harb. It was a question of which would happen first — denunciations of the bill, or attempting to make a Mac Harb question sound like government business. When QP got underway, Thomas Mulcair first demanded the resignation of Julian Fantino, not that Stephen Harper was going to bite on that one. When he insisted that the veterans service centres be restored, Harper insisted that they had increased services, not cuts. Mulcair moved onto the issue of CSE’s monitoring of airport WiFi and asked who authorised it, Harper assured him that CSE acted within the law. Justin Trudeau was up next, and brought up the elections bill and called it an attack on Elections Canada. Harper insisted that this was simply about ensuring proper independence of the Commissioner of Elections. When Trudeau brought up Elections Canada’s request to have the powers to compel testimony, Harper retreated to the same talking points.

Round two, and Mulcair was back up, and brought up the charges and wondered if Harper had spoken to the government of Brunei about compelling their former ambassador to cooperate with the RCMP (Harper: We have confidence in the RCMP), he brought up the fact that several senators he appointed didn’t live in the provinces for which they were appointed (Harper: The RCMP have laid charges, and we expected all parliamentarians to follow the rules), Craig Scott asked about his consultations with the Chief Electoral Officer (Poilievre: You announced your opposition to the bill without reading it, whereas I met with him in August, read all of his reports and invited him to call me if he had further ideas), Nycole Turmel wondered if the voter ID clause would contravene the Charter (Poilievre: When people lie about their identity, they steal someone else’s vote), and David Christopherson returned to the issue of Elections Canada not being able to compel testimony (Poilievre: The Act already has the power to request documents from parties). Joyce Murray wondered why CSE wasn’t subject to parliamentary scrutiny (Nicholson: Your party authorised these activities in 2005), and Scott Simms and Stéphane Dion returned to the Elections Canada changes (Poilievre: This bill will deliver democracy). Jack Harris and Élaine Michaud returned to the issue of CSE and metadata collection (Nicholson: There is an independent review of their activities by a superior court judge), and Sadia Groguhé and Peggy Nash asked about the provinces’ counterproposal for the Canada Job Grant (Bergen: The programme is flexible and you want to build an economy around EI).

Round three saw questions on the underestimation of air pollution from oilsands projects, a quietly released report on a pipeline explosion, the IMF report on Canada’s “lost decade” of productivity, problems with grain transportation logistics, Conservative staffers who now work as tobacco lobbyists, low propane inventories, the Canadian journalist imprisoned in Egypt, and the election contribution limits.

Overall, it wasn’t as exciting a day as one might have thought given the news cycle, and there wasn’t as much punchiness as there easily could have been. It seemed to be the first time in ages that Mulcair tried to bring the accountability for Senate appointments back to the PM, with his decision to appoint senators in provinces where they didn’t currently reside, which is the kind of question that should have been asked months ago, but has been largely ignored.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Blake Richards for a tailored dark grey suit with a light blue shirt and purple tie, and to Chrystia Freeland for a fitted black short-sleeved dress. Style citations go out to Judy Foote for a zebra-print dress, and to Colin Carrie for a dark suit with a faded cranberry shirt and pocket square and a black patterned tie. Dishonourable mentions go out to Olivia Chow for a golden yellow jacket with a black top and trousers, to Bal Gosal for a black suit and tie with a butterscotch shirt, and to Larry Miller for a black suit with a butterscotch shirt and green tie.