With much of the media’s attention turned to Rob Ford’s visit to Ottawa, all party leaders were in the House, ready to scrap. Thomas Mulcair led off by pointing out that a certain Senator headlined a fundraiser for Pierre Poilievre — actually not government business — not that Harper took the bait and praised the elections bill instead. Mulcair brought up the Deloitte audit and tried to insinuate that Senator Tkachuk was passing information to the PMO. Harper reminded him that it wasn’t a question for him to answer. Mulcair then asked why it was that the previous draft of the election bill was rejected by the Conservative caucus, but Harper insisted that Muclair’s information was wrong. Justin Trudeau was up next, and brought up slowing growth figures and wondered why the Building Canada Fund was losing money, but Harper hit back by saying that Trudeau didn’t understand the economy. And on it went for two more supplementals.

Round two, and Mulcair was back up, wondering who was responsible for election reform (Harper: Cabinet collectively drafts and discusses legislation), did they consult the Conservative Party in drafting the bill (Harper: You’re descending into conspiracy theories), why the $300 figure to increase donation limits (Harper: We’ve cut direct transfers to parties), why ban vouching (Harper: There were plenty of reports of problems), why do you want to make it more difficult for seniors to vote (Harper: Here are all other measures that seniors in residences can use), and why ban the Chief Electoral Officer from speaking out about voter fraud (Harper: The Commissioner has full independence to investigate fraud). Gerry Byrne asked about PMO expensed lunches (Clement: We brought down hospitality expenses from when Liberals were in charge), Joyce Murray asked about the number of botched military procurement projects (Finley: Look at all of our successful procurements), and John McCallum asked about income splitting (Harper: We’re waiting to balance the budget). Matthew Kellway and Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet asked about the loss of home delivery service (Raitt: Canada Post is losing money, and they have been working to help people with disabilities get mail since the 1980s), before Boutin-Sweet and Olivia Chow asked about affordable housing funding (Bergen: We’re making good progress on affordable housing; Lebel: The Building Canada Fund can be used for transit projects).

Round three saw questions on those expensed PMO lunches, advertising spending, why the government refused to allow any opposition MPs in the delegation to Ukraine (Anderson: We’re the only party that has taken this seriously), why we aren’t taking in more Syrian refugees, collusion among oil companies, the EI changes disadvantaging people in PEI because of where they live, a potential Ritalin shortage, the Canada Job Grant and youth unemployment, and the loss of home mail delivery giving separatists more ammunition.

Overall, Mulcair tried to return to the prosecutorial role today, first on a couple of Senate-related questions that were not really government business before turning to the elections bill. The problem was that he kept trying to draw links between the Conservative Party and the bill, which Harper quite easily batted away as “conspiracy theory,” and some of the other minutiae that Mulcair was hammering on had people scratching their heads as to where he was going with it. It felt like Mulcair was trying to recapture his earlier QP magic in the face of all attention being on Trudeau these days, but it didn’t quite take hold. Perhaps the disconnect lies in the difference between pointed questions to get answers versus scoring points. Today was largely the latter.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Justin Trudeau, the only leader to participate in Pink Shirt Day, for his pale pink shirt with a grey suit and blue striped tie, and to Lisa Raitt for a pink leather jacket with a white collared shirt with black trousers. Style citations go out to Roxanne James for a boxy black jacket with gold embroidered epaulets, and to Tony Clement for a grey-brown suit with a pale yellow shirt and brown and yellow spotted tie. Dishonourable mention goes out to Leona Aglukkaq for a black dress with a yellow sweater and yellow patterned scarf.