It was a black morning on the Hill with two MPs suspended for allegations of harassment, and Stephen Harper was absent, headed off to China, making the mood on odd one. While Thomas Mulcair was present, QP was actually led off by Megan Leslie, who raised the Governor of the Bank of Canada’s comments about the job market. Joe Oliver praised the 1.1 million net new jobs since the recession. Leslie asked if the government agreed with Poloz’s (torqued, selective) statement that young people should be willing to live at home and work for free if they can’t get a job. Oliver praised their measures for young people, and that a growing economy would help youth. After another round in the other official language, Libby Davies asked about more childcare spaces, to which Jason Kenney insisted that their tax credit measures and the universal child benefit were better than spaces. When asked again, Candice Bergen praised increased transfers to the provinces, whose jurisdiction childcare belongs to. Justin Trudeau was up for the Liberals, and he asked about the income splitting tax credit, to which Jason Kenney called the premise “rubbish” and said that it would benefit half of families and that their other measures would help more low income families. Trudeau called them out for avoiding income splitting in their responses, and raised something from Scott Brison’s 2003 Progressive Conservative leadership platform. Trudeau retorted with Brison’s line about his misguided time as a Conservative before asking the question again in French. Jason Kenney responded by accusing the Liberals of wanting to take away money from families.

Round two, and Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe and Andrew Cash asked about the partial restoration of refugee healthcare (Alexander: Do you want to give free healthcare to rejected claimants?), Pierre Nantel asked about government interference in CBC management (Glover: Their decisions are done independent from government, and the appointments to the Board are done in a rigorous manner), and Peter Julian returned to the issue of the treatment of refugees (Alexander: Canada’s commitment to the most vulnerable is clear and we resettle ten percent of all refugees in the world). Chrystia Freeland asked about youth unemployment and the advice that they work for free (Oliver: Our plan for Canadian families with kids will be tremendously beneficial), Scott Brison returned to the income splitting scheme and added in the spin of single parents in Whitby-Oshawa — site of an upcoming by-election (Kenney: You want to take $1200/year away from families and you used to like it), before Brison retorted that he saw the light, as did Flaherty, and re-asked the question with the Yellowhead frame (Kenney: The opposite is true and our announcement will give $1500 to single parents). Hélène Laverdière asked about the visa bans for west African countries (Alexander: We are protecting Canadians), and an adoption case from the region (Alexander: It has nothing to do with Ebola), and Romeo Saganash and Jean Crowder asked about graduation rates for First Nations youth (Valcourt: We were disappointed that the AFN failed to respect our signed agreement but we have a host of programmes to improve on-reserve outcomes).

Round three saw questions on child poverty, more questions on income splitting, musings about renaming the Champlain Bridge, the un-level playing field for venture funds for cooperatives, the lack of ratification on the convention on non-navigable waters, recovering only one percent tax evasion losses, funds for Quebec City looking to host tall ships for the Canada 150 celebration, and calling for action on China to release a Canadian citizen.

Overall, it was curious for the NDP to let Megan Leslie lead off while Mulcair was present, but it was suggested that they wanted to put women forward on a day of “male scandals.” Um, okay. I will give some of the NDP MPs for being sharp on the refugee healthcare, which gave a more interesting exchange with Chris Alexander. (Note: the praise does not apply to Peter Julian). As well, both Trudeau and Brison’s exchanges with Jason Kenney on Brison’s past support for income splitting were some of the kinds of good humoured point and counter-point that QP debate should have.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Candice Bergen for a grey dress with a black windowpane pattern, and to Rick Dykstra for a dark grey suit with a medium blue striped shirt and medium blue tie. Style citations go out to Jonathan Tremblay for a black suit with a fluorescent blue shirt with a white collar and a white tie, and to Kerry-Lynne Findlay for a black and white horizontal-striped jacket with three-quarter sleeves and an overly large grey sweater over a black top and trousers.