The first day back in the Commons kicked off with the four MPs who won by-elections at the start of the summer — two new Liberals and two new Conservatives. When things got underway at last, Thomas Mulcair led off by asking, in both languages in the same slot, how many members of the Canadian Forces were being sent to Iraq. Harper gave a general figure of Air Force members flying in supplies, and “several dozen” members of the Special Forces for an advisory role. Mulcair asked — again in both languages — why there wasn’t a vote on the deployment. Harper reminded him that a government that has the confidence of the Chamber can deploy Forces, and this wasn’t a combat mission. Mulcair switched topic to working parents with poverty, to which Harper reminded him that labour markets were largely provincial responsibility and there was no need to reinstate a federal minimum wage to create two classes of workers. When Mulcair tried to press, Harper reminded him of all the great things they were doing for families. Justin Trudeau was up for the Liberals, and without visibly reading, asked about why the EI tax credit offers more incentives to fire workers than to hire them. Harper insisted he didn’t know what Trudeau was talking about, and when Trudeau spelled it out, Harper fell back to the “45 day work year” canard.

Obligatory note: Newly elected MPS aren't supposed to pretend to resist being dragged into the Chamber. That's just new speakers. #QP

— kady o'malley (@kady) September 15, 2014

Someone shouts "Where's yours, Tom?" #QP #cdnpoli

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) September 15, 2014

Round two, and Mulcair was back up to offer some tinfoil hat paranoia about a foreign dictatorship taking over a province’s natural resources without consultation (Harper: We have an Investment Canada process), there was more hand waving around the Canada-China FIPA (Harper: Any investment is still subject to the Investment Canada Act and we are giving Canadian businesses in China legal protections, Alexandre Boulerice and Charlie Angus wanted another investigation into Nigel Wright — not that it’s government business (Calandra: What about your “illegal” satellite offices?), Angus asked about clamping down on Access to Information (Albas: Look at how many releases we’ve made!), Murray Rankin asked about the CRA audits into charities (Findlay: You know full well CRA is arm’s length and doesn’t take political direction), and Nathan Cullen returned to the issue of a federal minimum wage (Kenney: Look how much wages have risen under our government). Marc Garneau asked for a debate about the issue of ISIS (Nicholson: My understanding is that Parliament will be discussing this), and John McCallum and Ralph Goodale noted more concerns about the government’s EI tax credit (Oliver: You only pretend to support small businesses). Dany Morin and Libby Davies asked about defective medications (Ambrose: When a dangerous product is identified, we acted immediately), and Jack Harris and Elaine Michaud asked about the RCAF having to source parts from the Air Force museum (Nicholson: It was a mistake and the RCAF took measures).

Round three saw demands for a national inquiry on missing and murdered Aboriginal women, refugee healthcare, the Scarborough subway, exploratory drilling off the shore of Quebec, the closure of the North South Institute, the future of the Mirabel airport, the closure of the only francophone library at DFO, and CSIS reports on Canadians joining radical groups abroad.

Overall, very little changed over the summer. It was nice to see the newbie MPs be given questions first off, but some of them were far more obvious in their reading than others. Hopefully they improve over time. It should be worth noting that Trudeau did trip up Harper entirely today, and that when presented with facts and figures, Harper fell back and relied on an old and incorrect talking point rather than answering the question being put to him. Good on Trudeau for using QP to its full advantage. I also found it curious that in his first two questions, Mulcair asked in both English and French in the same slot. This is a new strategy for him.

Sartorially speaking, snaps to out to Michelle Rempel for a black fitted dress with sheer sleeves, and to James Bezan for a dark grey suit with a light blue checked shirt and a bright blue and black tie and matching blue pocket square. Style citations go out to Jean Rousseau for a khaki suit with a faded teal shirt and striped tie, and to Susan Truppe for a bright reddish-orange jacket with a black top with a gold chain sewn into the collar.