It was a rare Monday appearance in QP for the prime minister, given that there is a Maternal, Newborn & Child Health summit in Toronto later in the week that he’s hosting, not to mention that the premier of Turks & Caicos was also in attendance in the Speaker’s gallery. Thomas Mulcair kicked things off by asking why the PM changed his version of events around the call with the Chief Justice. Harper, sounding a bit hoarse, insisted that he had no idea what Mulcair was speaking about, but he knew that there was a potential issue that could go before the courts, so her consulted with independent legal experts. Mulcair tried again, and got the same response. Mulcair asked again, this time in French, and Harper reiterated that they always thought Federal Court judges would be eligible. Mulcair brought up the list of six judges published in the Globe and Mail, but Harper reiterated that they were under the impression that those judges were eligible, and with the Supreme Court having decided otherwise, they would respect that decision. Mulcair then demanded that Harper promise that he would not try to appoint a Federal Court judge for a Quebec seat, and Harper repeated that he wouldn’t. John McCallum led off for the Liberals, and brought up abuses to the Temporary Foreign Worker programme, but Harper insisted that he couldn’t decipher just what the Liberal position was on the issue. McCallum cranked up his rhetorical fire for an English supplemental, demanding that the government adopt his party’s five-point plan. Harper repeated that he couldn’t tell what the Liberal position was, but real job shortages should create an upward pressure on wages which is good for all Canadians. Scott Brison was up for the final question of the round, asking about the numbers of Canadians who have given up trying to even find work, but Harper said that Liberal plans would raise taxes and lose more jobs.

Round two started off with Françoise Boivin giving a riposte about the Quebec vacancies on the Supreme Court (MacKay: We will move forward and have a name for a new justice “very soon”), will the next pool of candidates have the consensus of Quebec (MacKay: You participated in the last process and had kind words for Justice Nadon), Sadia Groguhé and Jinny Sims asked about the use of the Temporary Foreign Worker for unskilled labour when it was designed for highly skilled labour (Kenney: You’re using poor research based on a programme that was changed two years previous), and Jack Harris and Élaine Michaud asked about the lack of progress on sexual assault investigations in the Canadian Forces (Nicholson: They are being investigated and no government has done more for victims than this government). Judy Sgro asked about the spending on government advertising (Clement: We need to communicate our excellent programmes to Canadians), and Stéphane Dion decried the politicization of the Supreme Court appointment process (MacKay: We appoint judges based on judicial excellence and merit). Hélène Laverdière, Niki Ashton, and Libby Davies asked about the need for reproductive health service to be part of the discussion at the Maternal and Child Health summit (Paradis: This initiative is a vital one and will save millions of lives), and Craig Scott asked about LGBT activists being denied visas for the World Pride conference (Alexander: We have spoken out for these rights across the world, we have worked with the organizers of the conference and we will do what we can).

Round three saw questions on Arthur Porter’s other activities when he was chair of SIRC, long-term care beds for Korean War-era veterans, the hiring and firing of a former minister’s staffer at ACOA, deaths related to the GM recall, giving visas for those GLBT activists, the role of CBC, flooding in the Balkans, the Quebec bill on the right to die with dignity, the ignored recommendations on the Cohen Commission into salmon, and the overreaction to temporary foreign worker industry hurting restaurants in Alberta.

Overall, it was a day with some punchiness, and it was one of Mulcair’s better days, though I would almost say that Françoise Boivin one-upped him in her own questions on the same Supreme Court appointment process. That said, they should have been less obvious in reading their questions, and been a bit more dynamic with their supplemental questions, especially with Mulcair’s last question as a glaring example.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Scott Brison for a navy suit with a pink shirt and light blue tie, and to Cathy McLeod for a teal and white dress with a black jacket. Style citations go out to Sadia Groguhé for a very eighties jacket with jagged geometric fluorescent pink and yellow patterns and flared sleeves, and to Jonathan Tremblay for a linen jacket with a light blue shirt, blue and white striped tie, and dark grey trousers. Dishonourable mention goes out to Niki Ashton for a blindingly floral satin dress with half sleeves.