As has become tradition, there were no major leaders in the House for Monday QP, which is a sorry comment in and of itself. When things got started, NDP deputy leader David Christopherson led off, shouting about the Conservatives’ dismissal of Sheila Fraser’s warnings about the elections bill. Pierre Poilievre responded that they simply disagreed with Elections Canada’s opinion and that it was reasonable to expect ID at the polls. Christopherson loudly mused dark conspiracy theories about the PMO cooking up smears against anyone who has had anything to do with Elections Canada. Poilievre, undaunted, gave his prepared talking points. Christopherson brought up the fact that the Director of Public Prosecutions was not consulted about the changes in the bill that affect him, to which Poilievre accused him of casting aspersions on the DPP’s independence. Alexandrine Latendresse repeated the same questions in French, eliciting a similar response. Scott Brison led off for the Liberals, worrying about the infrastructure needs of Fort McMurray being hurt by the cuts to the Building Canada Plan. Denis Lebel insisted that they were making record investments. David McGuinty asked the same again in French, but changed the location in need to Ottawa, not that Lebel gave him a different answer.

Round two, and Megan Leslie and Lysanne Blanchette-Lamothe brought up the characterisation of Sheila Fraser as a “self-proclaimed expert” (Poilievre: Why are you attacking the DPP?), before Blanchette-Lamothe brought up the issues of approval for central poll supervisor appointments (Poilievre: This is a fair and democratic part of our system), Ève Péclet returned to the issue of Fraser’s comments (Poilievre: The Chief Electoral Officer shouldn’t recommend a Commissioner of Elections because the commissioner can investigate him), Chris Charlton carried on talking about the attacks on experts (Poilievre: Look at all of these kinds of acceptable ID!), and Craig Scott asked an overarching narrative question about the bill (Poilievre: Look at these great provisions!). Ralph Goodale asked for more amendments to the rail grain bill on behalf of the government of Saskatchewan (Lemieux: We’ve shown real leadership), John McCallum asked about the imposition of new standards for spousal sponsorship (Alexander: We won’t be imposing language or other requirements), and the circumstances of Syrian refugees (Alexander: 1700 applications are being processed). Jinny Sims asked about McDonald’s hiring temporary foreign workers (Kenney: If any employer breaks the law, there are consequences and I ordered an inquiry and added that franchise owner to the blacklist), Sadia Groguhé noted that the blacklist was useless as it was unenforced (Kenney: There are severe penalties), and Charmaine Borg and Peggy Nash denounced the government’s “timid” digital strategy (Goodyear: It’s an ambitions strategy and I think it’s wonderful!).

Round three saw questions on unreported railway safety incidents, the need for new transit investments, the refusal of the minister of justice to meet with the families of missing and murdered Aboriginal victims, the need for an international investigation into the abuses of the Sri Lankan government, rising anti-Semitism in Hungary, the impact of Canada Post cuts on small businesses, cuts to homelessness partners, an American bankruptcy affecting Canadian workers, and the IPCC report on GHG targets.

Overall, while the questions were more focused today, it should be noted that Pierre Poilievre has really doubled down on his tactic of presenting the changes in the elections bill as “common sense” and “reasonable,” unlike the supposed positions of the opposition. Because it’s best to go with gut feelings and not expert opinions that are self-interested or come from ivory towers, right? Thought so.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Diane Finley for a black dress with a white jacket with a pink and black pattern, and to Jonathan Genest-Jourdain for a dark grey pinstriped suit with a white shirt and pocket square and a navy tie. Style citations go out to habitual offender Jean Rousseau for a medium grey suit wit a bright fuchsia shirt and a purple tie, and to Laurin Liu for a black collared wrap dress with bright red and cream floral patterns.