Somewhat amazing for a Monday in this session, there actually was a major leader in the House. Almost unbelievable, I know. Thomas Mulcair led off by asking about the UN special rapporteur on indigenous people’s report on Canada’s Aboriginals, and demanded a public inquiry on missing and murdered Aboriginal women. Peter MacKay responded and touted all of the measures they’ve taken like renewing funding for the Aboriginal justice strategy. Mulcair moved on, and demanded powers to compel testimony for the Elections Commissioner, citing that the Conservative party lawyer gave false information to Elections Canada. Pierre Poilievre insisted that his party was cleared of any wrongdoing, and a second round of those questions — which was more party business than government business — got a similar response. Mulcair then moved on to a small business hiring tax credit, to which Joe Oliver read some good news talking points about job creation. Mulcair noted that unemployment was higher in Toronto than the national average, and decried temporary foreign workers. Jason Kenney insisted that they were cracking down on those who abused the programme. John McCallum was up for the Liberals, and thrice denounced the problems with the government’s Job Bank, and Kenney defended the system, calling it a useful platform.

Round two, and Jinny Sims and Sadia Groguhé carried on with the questions of the quality of the data in the Job Bank affecting the labour market opinions to grant permits for temporary foreign workers (Kenney: We are making improvements to the Job Bank), Romeo Saganash asked the minister to list the causes of why Aboriginal women go missing or get murdered (MacKay: Here is a list of things we’re doing), Niki Ashton repeated the call for a national inquiry (MacKay: Here’s an advocate who says that the police need more support, not an inquiry), and Françoise Boivin asked about the cuts to the Justice Department’s research budget (MacKay: Financial responsibility in the public service! Value to tax dollars!) Scott Brison noted the doubling of the numbers of Canadians who had been unemployed for over a year since 2008 while they are now giving four-year temporary foreign work permits (Kenney: That’s a maximum renewable period, to ensure that they’re not renewed indefinitely; Oliver: We are focused on jobs and economic growth), and Judy Sgro asked about the Ontario pension plan versus “artificially high” EI premiums (Oliver: The Ontario Liberals are attacking the government to divert attention from their own failures). Charlie Angus and Ève Péclet brought up Justice Gomery’s attacks about the spat with the Chief Justice (MacKay: We got legal opinions from former Supreme Court justices), and Guy Caron asked about the delays to the Canada-EU trade agreement (Fast: Yay trade agreement!)

Round three saw questions on the failure to adopt the Mental Health Commissions standards in the public service, the cuts at Canada Post, yet more calls for a national inquiry on missing and murdered Aboriginal women, something about somebody from Kinshasa (sorry, I didn’t quite catch it), delays to infrastructure funding, the inshore shrimp fishery, sports and cultural infrastructure, First Nations housing funding, Quebec asking for an exemption on the temporary foreign worker moratorium, and climate change emissions targets.

Overall, it was and utterly scattershot day, with no real narrative coherence. Repetitive French/English questions were endemic, and dragged down the flow. But hey, we actually had a major leader in the House on a Monday!

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to James Bezan for a black suit with a lavender shirt and a dark purple tie and pocket square, and to Michelle Rempel for a fitted black dress with half sleeves. Style citations go out to Sadia Groguhé for a jacket and skirt set with a multicoloured circular pattern capped off with a orange floral patterned shawl, and to Jean Rousseau for a chocolate brown suit with a solid pumpkin shirt and creamsicle coloured tie. A special mention goes out to Christine Moore for a pale orange structured dress with a high-collared slightly metallic red satin bolero jacket with Snow White sleeves, and matching headband. It was so many levels of wrong that it was amazing to behold.