The second day of the fall sitting, and the Conservative Members’ Statements were beyond hysterical. Thomas Mulcair led off, and demanded to know how many Canadian Forces’ members were in Iraq. Harper responded that it was 69. Mulcair railed on about military deployments needing the approval of the House — undercutting his own accountability role given the practice of Crown Prerogatives. Harper reminded him that the current mission was not the same as the 2003 war. Mulcair changed topics, and asked if Harper would hide behind parliamentary privilege to avoid testifying at the Duffy trial. Harper suggested that Mulcair would be an expert witness on the misuse of public funds. Mulcair, after some hubbub, wondered why Harper didn’t fire anyone involved in the “bribery” of Duffy, but Harper hit back that Mulcair should probably fire himself. Mulcair changed topics again and mentioned a report on the Champlain Bridge that said that a toll would make traffic surge on other bridges instead. Harper reminded him that they were still in a contracting process. Justin Trudeau was up next, and returned to the problems with the EI tax credits which incentivize firing instead of hiring employees. Harper shot back with a couple of non-sequiturs about the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and Trudeau musing about cancelling income splitting. Trudeau shot back with a different quote about the CFIB and called on him to give a break on premiums. Harper read a quote from the CFIB, and accused Trudeau of wanting to raise rates.

Round two, and Nathan Cullen spread derision around to the other parties about the EI credit (Oliver: You didn’t take up my ice bucket challenge — no, seriously), Robert Aubin and Yvon Godin brought up the surplus in the EI fund (Oliver: Our credit will create 25,000 person-years of employment!), Sadia Groguhé and Jinny Sims demanded the cancellation of the Temporary Foreign Workers programme (Kenney: We brought in fundamental reforms and there has been a 75 percent drop in applications), Chris Charlton and Alexandre Boulerice demanded a federal minimum wage (Kenney: You know you will never keep these promises and your provincial counterparts won’t implement minimum wages of that rate). Trudeau was back up to ask about the tolls on the Champlain Bridge (Harper: There is a procurement process and we’re glad all aspects are being studied), Scott Brison returned to the problems with the EI tax credit (Oliver: Our plan will create jobs), and Sean Casey asked if Harper would testify under oath at the Duffy Trial (Calandra: He’s already answered and you want to take away pension splitting from seniors). Paul Dewarand Hélène Laverdière asked if the government would deploy DART to help with the Ebola outbreak in Africa (Ambrose: We have offered money, donated equipment, have a mobile lab on the ground and have given experimental vaccines), and Elaine Michaud and Jack Harris asked about suicides in the military (Nicholson: We have increased our investment in mental health services).

Round three saw questions on the Senate hiring a communications firm, unsafe drugs, budget cuts contributing to military suicides, greenhouse gas regulations for the oil and gas sector, someone being evicted by the government, a local plant closure, a refugee claimant being sent back to Pakistan to a death sentence, mail home delivery, and the risks to Beluga whales on a project.

Overall, we saw a number of questions that had absolutely nothing to do with government business, be it with the Duffy trial, General Leslie’s moving expenses, or the Senate’s contract to a communications firm. The Speaker should shut that nonsense down as it is beyond the scope of QP, and move onto the next question. It wastes time and is only used for partisan grandstanding — not holding the government to account. We also had another incident of the NDP asking a question, getting a substantive answer, and asking the very same question again in French, once again proving how the reliance on scripts is killing debate.

Sartorially speaking snaps go out to Bernard Trottier for a dark grey suit with a crisp white shirt and a lavender tie, and to Rona Ambrose for a fitted dark grey dress with a black jacket. Style citations go out to Joyce Bateman for a leopard-print sweater over a black v-neck top, and to Jonathan Tremblay for a black suit with a dark blue shirt with white spots, and a white tie.