It being caucus day, it was all hands on deck in the House (more or less), and everyone was raring to go. Thomas Mulcair brought up the kidnapping of those Nigerian girls by Boko Haram and what the government was willing to do about it. Stephen Harper said that the government stood willing to help the Nigerian government and was waiting for word. Mulcair then returned to the issue of the spat with the Chief Justice, and noted that law deans from across the country were also calling for an apology. Harper simply reiterated yesterday’s response, that he was aware there may have been an issue going forward and that he sought independent legal advice for the potential that it went before the courts. Mulcair noted that the Federal Court was keeping the suit open in case that Harper tried to reappoint Nadon, but Harper once again insisted that he had no plans to do so, and then launched into a tirade about how the Nadon Reference made Quebec judges on the Federal Court second-class citizens. Mulcair changed topics once again, and wanted a guarantee that any World War II veteran would not be out of pocket to attend a D-Day ceremony. Justin Trudeau was up next, and invited Harper to withdraw his remarks about the Chief Justice. Harper, however, regurgitated his line that he was aware there might be an issue. Trudeau changed topics, and wanted government support for their plan to make changes to the Temporary Foreign Workers programme. Harper insisted that they’ve been making improvements for three years and those steps had reduced applications by 30 per cent.

Round two, and Malcolm Allen asked about the lack of long-term analysis of public sector pension plan sustainability (Clement: Those plans should always be reviewed, and we’ve made sure the plans will be sustainable for the future), Dennis Bevington brought up the AG’s report on CanNor (Carrie: We will make record investments in the North), Alain Giguère raised the AG concerns about federal building management (Finley: When the problems were raised, we took action and money was recovered), Nathan Cullen raised the cabinet documents not turned over to the Auditor General — and overreached a bit in the impact of not turning those over (Clement: We will work with the Auditor General getting the information he needs), and Jinny Sims and Sadia Groguhé pointed out that the Auditor General said the job data was unreliable leading to more TFWs (Kenney: The data in question has nothing to do with TFWs) and asked about pilots being ousted for temporary foreign workers (Kenney: We have a second round of reforms coming). Chrystia Freeland also pointed to inadequate job data and demanded to reverse the cuts to StatsCan (Kenney: We do have an idea of what sectors those workers are in, and most of the TFWs in Southern Ontario are those who are repairing or installing new equipment), and John McCallum brought up the way in which Kenney tends to only respond to his caucus with regards to TFWs (Kenney: Your party is incoherent). Megan Leslie asked about American action on climate change (Carrie: Our sector-by-sector approach), Robert Chisholm noted delays for EI parental leave claims (Kenney: Service Canada is reducing the wait times), and Robert Aubin asked about EI acceptance rates (Kenney: The numbers you quoted don’t reflect reality).

Round three saw questions on tolls on the Champlain Bridge replacement, the possible closure of Winnipeg’s drug treatment court, the Nigerian kidnappings, the US climate change report, an Acadian college’s assets being sold, funding cuts for language training for new immigrants, a call for a national forestry registry, and another question on EI figures.

Overall, topics leapt around a fair amount today, and there was little overall coherence as a result. The fact that the opposition has yet to raise the issue of the deployment of Canadian Forces to Eastern Europe also remains a problem, because it’s an abrogation of their oversight duties (as Philippe Lagassé noted). The fact that the only question on the topic was an obsequious backbench suck-up question makes it all the worse for the state of opposition in this country.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Blake Richards for a dark grey suit with a light blue shirt and dark blue tie, and to Alexandrine Latendresse for a mottled dark blue keyhole-necked top with a black suit. Style citations go out to Megan Leslie for a translucent floral collared shirt with a black skirt, and to Bal Gosal for a dark grey suit with a pale cranberry shirt and maroon tie.