QP: Privacy Commissioner conspiracies

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It was a scorching Monday in the Nation’s Capital, which always has the potential to make MPs crankier. Thomas Mulcair led off by reminding the Commons of the incident six months ago when a Canadian was denied entry into the States because of treatment for depression, and that his candidate for Privacy Commissioner helped to negotiate the information sharing agreement with the States. Stephen Harper, in the Commons for a rare Monday appearance, reminded him that the appointee was a non-partisan public servant with decades of experience. Mulcair pressed, pointing out all the various surveillance measures that the candidate had worked on, but Harper shrugged it off, saying that Mulcair sees conspiracy theories everywhere. Mulcair went at it again, insisting that there was a conflict of interest of someone who dealt with surveillance legislation — and referring to the Liberal leader as Harper’s pal — but Harper reiterated his response and said that the nominee could explain it before committee. For he Liberals, John McCallum led off — Trudeau again being elsewhere — and noted that Alberta’s labour minister offered to take over aspects of the Temporary Foreign Worker programme in his province. Harper insisted that the Liberal position was confused, and that they opposed strengthening the enforcement measures. McCallum pointed out that there remained no employer on a blacklist for abuse or that been fined, but Harper reiterated in is answer. Marc Garneau asked about grants for federal social housing agreements, to which Candice Bergen said that the Liberals cut funding for housing in the nineties.

Round two, and Thomas Mulcair was back up, suggesting that the government had botched the Canada–EU trade deal (Harper: Technical negotiations will be concluded soon), the announced coal-fire regulations in the States versus the lacking oil and gas regulations in Canada (Harper: We welcome the Obama administration announcement, and we announced our regulations in that sector two years ago), Megan Leslie asked when those oil and gas regulations would be tabled (Aglukkaq: We took action on coal two years ago), Jinny Sims and Sadia Groguhé decried the number of temporary foreign workers approved for PEI (Kenney: We have reforms being made to the system), and Pierre Jacob and Peter Stoffer asked about Fantino snubbing that veteran’s spouse (Fantino: We offer world-class rehabilitation and you are trying to politicise this case). Kevin Lamoureux decried the infrastructure needs of Fort McMurray (Lebel: Municipalities get the funding they need), Carolyn Bennett about the same vis-à-vis Toronto (Lebel: The FCM is trying to play politics), and Geoff Regan pointed out the delays in climate change regulations affecting the Keystone XL approval (Aglukkaq: Canada represents less than two percent of global emissions). Annick Papillon denounced the end of the small business hiring tax credits (Sorensen: You voted against this, and it was only meant to be a temporary measure), Glenn Thibeault demanded regulations on credit card merchant fees (Sorensen: Look at all this action we’ve taken!), and Nathan Cullen insisted that the government was harming small businesses (Sorensen: Carbon tax!).

Round three saw questions on cuts to nursing care in federal penitentiaries, efforts to combat Boko Haram, the uselessness of the phone line that veterans are being directed to, support for ParticipAction, the plight of Syrian refugees, the drug shortage reporting, the lack of protection for marine habitats, problems with Athletics Canada, and more on the American climate change regulations.

Overall, Mulcair took nearly half of the question slots for himself while the Prime Minister was present, but his questions were repetitive rather than focused on the responses he got, and his attempts to fire back about the trade agreements and the accusations that his party doesn’t support any of them were only half-hearted. I’m not sure that including laundry lists of complaints in single questions is also a terribly effective strategy since it makes them easier to shrug off, for what it’s worth. That said, there wasn’t too much childish behaviour in the House, but it is only Monday, and the silly season is now in full swing.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to James Bezan for a light grey suit with a light blue shirt and a dark blue striped tie and pocket square, and to Rona Ambrose for a green tartan top with black leather half-sleeves. Style citations go out to Isabelle Morin for a brown-and-orange-patterned short dress with a black bolero-cut sweater, and to Sylvain Chicoine for a charcoal suit with a burgundy shirt and a red patterned tie.