Before Question Period got underway, the Speaker rose to make a statement. Scheer gave a reminder about his role as it is laid out in O’Brien and Bosc, and reminded members that the current practice, upheld by successive Speakers, is that he has no authority over the content of answers, quoting Speaker Milliken several times. He reminded them that it is up to MPs to give him those powers, but did caution MPs to be more judicious in their language. When things got started officially, Thomas Mulcair asked about the end date of the engagement in Iraq. With Harper off in New York, James Bezan stood up to tell him that the clock started on September 5th, and chided the NDP for offering no suggestions for stopping ISIS. Mulcair made a dig about Bezan not being a member of government before asking how many soldiers were on the ground at present. Bezan deferred, but when Mulcair pressed, Bezan said that the commitment was for 69 personnel who would provide assistance to Kurdish forces. Mulcair demanded a vote on deployment, and Bezan noted all of the other deployments that they didn’t demand a vote for. For his final question, Mulcair demanded a full public inquiry into missing and murdered Aboriginal women. Kellie Leitch said that families of victims were thankful to the government for coming forward with their Action Plan™. For his question, Justin Trudeau cited a report saying that this generation of Canadians would be worse off than their parents, and wondered what the government was doing to change that. Joe Oliver responded by touting assistance for low-income Canadians. Citing the inter-generational wealth gap, Trudeau wondered if the government would vote for their EI credit proposal, but Joe Oliver responded by reading his previous statement in French. Trudeau pressed on their plans for the vote, but Oliver said that the last thing the Liberals were qualified to talk about was EI.

Round two, and Megan Leslie noted Leona Aglukkaq’s speech to an empty room in New York (Aglukkaq: We have been clear that we want a fair agreement at Paris 2015), about supporting clean technology (Aglukkaq: Our emissions are decreasing while the economy grows), Sadia Groguhé asked about the government not helping enough with skills (Kenney: I was encouraging the provinces to offer relevant training), Jinny Sims accused Kenney of blaming the provinces for letting the temporary foreign workers programme getting out of hand (Kenney: My speech was about the skills gap), and Carole Hughes and Romeo Saganash demanded the government vote down their own committee report on missing and murdered Aboriginal women because it doesn’t call for an inquiry (Leitch: We are taking action now). Stéphane Dion asked about the injunction made on drilling in Beluga habitats (Shea: DFO’s scientists made their determination, but this is a legal matter so I can’t say anything more), Judy Sgro asked about the problems with the EI tax credit (Oliver: Your plans won’t help anyone), and Scott Brison listed the praise for the Liberal EI plan (Oliver: The CFIB loved our plan too). Elaine Michaud and Jack Harris asked about the possible plans to buy some retiring US naval supply ships (Bezan: We are investing in modernising the frigates and our shipbuilding programme will build two new resupply vessels), and Peggy Nash and Hélène Laverdière asked about sanctions against Russia excluding most of their oil companies (Obhrai: The president of Ukraine said that we were their best friend).

Round three saw questions on the rail companies not being fined for missing quotas, drilling off the Quebec coast, replacements for naval supply ships, Mulcair asked about the statement Harper just made about an American request for more forces in Iraq (Bezan: We have committee forces in a non-combat role, we will have discussions as we review progress), the end to door-to-door postal delivery, the lack of urgency on the South Korean trade agreement impacting agriculture, and trawling for support for a private member’s bill.

Overall, I think it bears noting that after the Speaker made his speech, Mulcair and most of the NDP caucus sat in stone-faced silence while others applauded it. Never mind that the NDP takes full advantage of Scheer’s inconsistent enforcement of rules with regards to allowing questions that aren’t about the administrative responsibilities of government (such as private members’ business), or that it is up to the House as a whole to give the Speaker the powers to rule on the relevance of answers and that they haven’t done so in successive parliaments — they insist on the selective enforcement of rules that suit them. Yes, it’s not the best state of affairs, but for all the wailing and gnashing of teeth that MPs make about the state of decorum, they are the ones who need to empower the Speaker, rather than him seizing that power. Oh, and Mulcair making snide digs at Bezan didn’t really help with the tone either.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to James Bezan for a dark grey suit with a lavender shirt and a purple tie and pocket square, and to Michelle Rempel for a short-sleeved tartan dress. Style citations go out to Sadia Groguhé for a black jacket with a loud red floral pattern over a black too and trousers, and to Dany Morin for a slate grey suit with a creamsicle orange shirt and multicoloured diamond-patterned tie.