As the sitting week winds down in advance of the two-week March break, there was a definite feel of that very same happening in the House. Thomas Mulcair, the only leader present, led off by asking about the bottleneck of grain shipments on the prairies, for which Pierre Lemieux — a parliamentary secretary and not even a designated back-up PM du jour — assured him that they were working to address the logistics system. Mulcair gave an angry retort and demanded that Lisa Raitt answer the question, but Lemieux repeated his answer as the Conservative benches mocked Mulcair’s angry growl. Mulcair moved to the issue of voter information cards, and Pierre Poilievre listed possible kinds of ID that could be used. Mulcair brought up Marc Mayrand’s concerns about the ability to dress-up campaign advertising as fundraising under the elections bill, but Poilievre reminded him that the NDP leadership allowed the very same thing. Mulcair closed his round by saying that Mayrand demolished their arguments about voter fraud, but Poilievre disputed the factuality of that assertion. Ralph Goodale led off for the Liberals, pointing out a section of the Railway Act that the minister of transport could use to get the grain on the prairies moving, but Lemieux stood up to deliver his same talking points. Goodale turned to the coming drop in funding for the Building Canada Fund, but Denis Lebel insisted that they tripled funding for infrastructure over the ten years.

Round two, and Alexandrine Latendresse asked about the reimbursements being given out to candidates without proper paperwork (Poilievre: The bill will ensure that every cent is accounted for), on the Chief Electoral Officer’s powers (Poilievre: He already has the power to get testimony), Chris Charlton insisted that they were conflating voter fraud and encouraging votes (Poilievre: Look at these 50,000 improper cases of vouching), Craig Scott brought up the problems around leadership loans in the bill (Poilievre: Look at your own party’s leadership rules), Charlie Angus and Alexandre Boulerice asked about the allegations of illegal lobbying against former Harper advisor Bruce Carson (Calandra: He’s a private citizen and if there is wrongdoing he should be punished). Carolyn Bennett, Massimo Pacetti and Scott Simms returned to the issue of Mayrand asking for the power to compel testimony (Poilievre: He already has the power of a police force). Jean Crowder, Niki Ashton and Romeo Saganash brought up the death of Loretta Saunders to call for a national inquiry on missing and murdered Aboriginal women (MacKay: Look at all the public safety measures we’ve passed and the time for study has passed).

Round three saw questions on Brad Wall calling for a carbon tax (err, not exactly), Jim Prentice engaging First Nations on the Northern Gateway pipeline, a Corrections programme for sexual offenders being cut, the prairie grain backlog, mental health workers in the military, the “zero liability” policy for credit card purchases, tax collection in Quebec, the cuts to Canada Post, and Canadian children being unable to get to Canada when their non-Canadian parents — like Syrians — can’t get a visa.

Overall, I think it bears reminding that asserting that the government has ulterior or underhanded motives in the form of a rhetorical question isn’t going to elicit anything other than a series of talking points about how great they are. It’s not a real question, and it’s really not a great clip in a news piece because it looks petty and childish, so why keep doing it?

Sartorial speaking, snaps go out to Bernard Trottier for a black suit with a crisp white shirt and a lavender tie, and to Marie-Claude Morin for a shirt-sleeved grey dress with a wide black empire waist. Style citations go out to Charmaine Borg for a peach top with a cream half-sleeved sweater with a sparkly pilgrim collar, and to François Choquette for a black suit with a fluorescent blue shirt and a blue and grey striped tie. Dishonourable mention goes out to Kerry-Lynne Findlay for a zebra-print top with a red collar under a grey suit.