With Stephen Harper out of the Commons, likely prepping for his trip to the UN, the other leaders were present and accounted for. Thomas Mulcair led off by asking if a statement by James Bezan about the end date for the Iraq, but Paul Calandra ignored the question entirely and accused an NDP fundraiser of saying terrible things about Israel. Mulcair brought the point back to Iraq, while Calandra tried to hammer the fundraiser’s comments. When Calandra tried a third time, Mulcair challenged the Speaker’s neutrality for not shutting him down. Scheer, unimpressed, cut Mulcair’s last two questions and went directly to Justin Trudeau, who asked about job creation. Joe Oliver touted job internship programmes and so on, but didn’t offer much else. Trudeau moved onto Harper’s absence from the climate conference in New York. Colin Carrie dutifully got up to read some prepared statements, much as he did yesterday. Trudeau brought up action taken by premiers for carbon pricing, to which Carrie read another statement.

Round two, and Megan Leslie carried on questions about the climate summit (Carrie: more scripts), Robert Aubin accused the government of cutting EI from workers to preserve surpluses (Oliver: We have frozen the premiums for a three-year period), Robert Chisholm wanted support for his EI related private member’s bill (Oliver: You support a 45-day work year), Chris Charlton accused the government of shovelling EI funds to corporate friends (Oliver: Ibid.), and Charlie Angus and Alexandre Boulerice asked about the Duffy trial — not government business (Calandra: The PM has already answered about testifying and you owe taxpayers millions). Chrystia Freeland asked about the EI tax credit problems (Oliver: You used to raid the EI fund), and Scott Brison and Ralph Goodale brought up the CFIB’s support for their own EI tax plan (Oliver: Our plan will create thousands of new jobs!) Jinny Simms and Sadia Groguhé asked about the backlogs at the Social Security Tribunal (Kenney: We resolve 90 percent of appeals internally so fewer need to go to tribunals), and Dany Morin and Libby Davies demanded more money for healthcare wait times (Ambrose: We provided $1 billion for priority areas and they have met 80 percent of time targets).

Round three saw questions on trying to get 100 Gazan children to Canada for treatment, Syrian refugees, the Duffy trial, defence critics being denied the ability to visit military bases, a rail safety report, departments not respecting the Official Languages Act, a family facing deportation, a food fishery time period being curtailed by poor weather.

Overall, it was a complete spectacle today, and nobody was in the right. Mulcair demanded that the Speaker enforce the rules fully — never mind that it would actually mean doing away with scripts (as he was holding one in his hand), and doing away with questions that have nothing to do with government business, of which the NDP asked several of such questions today. Calandra, meanwhile, was utterly shameless and should have been called to order. Mulcair’s mistake was to challenge Scheer’s neutrality to his face in such a snide manner without formally challenging the Speaker. Openly musing about the neutrality of the Speaker is usually a loser’s last tactic, and Mulcair crossed that line out of frustration rather than try to embarrass Calandra. Nobody won.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Megan Leslie for a black crushed velvet dress with short satin sleeves, and to Greg Rickford for a tailored dark grey suit with a crisp white shirt and a lavender tie. Style citations go out to Mike Sullivan for a navy suit with a pale cranberry shirt with a brown patterned tie, and to Linda Duncan for her pumpkin orange jacket with black wheel patterns over a black top and skirt.