Votes at the end of a series of procedural tactics given the NDP’s opposition to time allocation on the elections bill delayed the start of QP today, and when it did get started, Thomas Mulcair was the only leader in the House — Harper off in Quebec City and Justin Trudeau in Montreal. Mulcair started off , somewhat surprisingly, with a question about the funding gap for children on First Nations reserves, and if it would be addressed in the budget. Bernard Valcourt said that funding would come with reform of the system, which has been ongoing. Mulcair moved onto the morning’s PBO report that said that public servants don’t take any more sick days than private sector employees. Tony Clement said that if one added paid and unpaid sick days, public servants were still higher than the private sector. Mulcair brought up elections bill and the fact that it gave a veto to testing new election measures to the Senate. Poilievre assured him that it was to ensure parliamentary approval for experiments, and when the NDP tried electronic voting at their convention, it didn’t work. New MP Emmanuel Dubourg led off for the Liberals, and asked about the cuts to the Building Canada infrastructure fund, and would the shortfall be restored in the budget. Kevin Sorensen waxed poetically about a brighter future for everyone in Canada. Ralph Goodale repeated the same in English, but this time Peter Braid answered, who assured him that investments in infrastructure tripled. For his final question, Goodale hammered on consumer debt levels, but Sorensen gave some “stay the course” talking points.

Round two, and Rosane Doré Lefebvre and Andrew Cash asked about flaws in the newly tabled citizenship bill (Menegakis: We’re strengthening citizenship), Nycole Turmel and Chris Charlton decried the use of time allocation on the elections bill (Poilievre: You opposed it before reading it and we want to get it to committee for further debate), and asked the provisions that muzzle the Chief Electoral Officer (Poilievre: We’re providing better customer service), Matthew Dubé asked what the problem with getting Elections Canada to help youth get out to vote (Poilievre: That hasn’t been working), and Jonathan Genest-Jourdain asked about how the vouching system would disadvantage First Nations voters who have trouble getting voter ID (Poilievre: 73 percent of young Aboriginals didn’t get enough information about how to vote). Marc Garneau asked about the failure of the last budget to create growth (Sorensen: Canada is a great place to do business), Joyce Murray brought up the soldiers who get kicked out when they come forward with mental illness (Nicholson: We have 400 mental health workers and we’re going to hire more), and Scott Simms asked about the giving the Commissioner of Elections the power to compel testimony (Poilievre: The powers that the Commissioner has right now the same powers as a police officer and we’re making it an offence to obstruct him). Peggy Nash returned to the question of First Nations education funding (Valcourt: Reform will accompany investment), and the infrastructure gap on reserves (Valcourt: We have taken a series of measures in partnership with First Nations to improve every community), and Murray Rankin asked about the agreement around FATCA and the protection of privacy (Sorensen: The agreement will not impose new taxes or penalties).

Round three saw questions on the backlog in grain transportation, universality of service provisions keeping injured soldiers from coming forward about their mental health issues, the future of supply management, the Northern Gateway pipeline, development aid around poverty elimination, the murder rate in Surrey, a community stranded by a rail line cut, veiled voting provisions not being in the elections bill.

Overall, it wasn’t a terribly exciting day, and the delays didn’t make anyone all the more anxious to engage in the act of holding the government to account. In the ongoing Chrystia Freeland sexism debate, it was noted that nobody heckled when Dubourg stood up to ask a question, unlike Freeland, for what it’s worth.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Maxime Bernier for a grey pinstriped suit with a white shirt and pocket square with a light blue tie, and to Candice Bergen for a three-quarter sleeved black dress with a white paisley print. Style citations go out to Christine Moore for a purple ruffled sweater with a pink skirt, and to Jean Rousseau for a brown suit with a fuchsia shirt and a rainbow tie. Those rainbow ties were sported by nearly all members of the NDP as a protest of anti-gay laws in Russia. It was a nice gesture, but one has to admit that they were possibly the most garish and tacky of rainbow ties imaginable.