QP: Fantino’s third-party management

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Tuesday, and all four leaders were in the chamber today, as was Julian Fantino. It was going to be a good day for outrage. Thomas Mulcair led off by immediately laying into Fantino and wondering about the lack of confidence in the minister if he was imposing “third party management” on the department. Harper insisted that he didn’t know what Mulcair was talking about and praised the former Chief of Defence Staff becoming the new Deputy Minister, and that he could think of no greater honour than the minister paying tribute to the 70th anniversary of the Italian Campaign. Mulcair asked again in French, where Harper reminded him that Fantino’s new chief of staff had nothing to do with the Duffy affair before repeating his previous answer. Mulcair wondered why the minister was still there if he had lost confidence in him. Harper noted that all ministers have chiefs of staff, and that Mulcair must also have one “overseeing the slow descent” of that party, before reminding him of the accrual accounting rules about the funding announcement. Mulcair moved onto the lack of concern by Aglukkaq on the scavenging allegations, to which Harper assured him that the people of Nunavut have never had stronger representation. Mulcair lumped in Gerry Ritz and Candice Bergen to his blanket condemnation, and Harper assured him that he was proud to compare the track record of his government to that of the NDP, before singing the praises of his front bench, and that then slammed the NDP of having such little public support that they had to “rob parliamentary funds” — earning him a rebuke from the Speaker. Justin Trudeau was up next, and brought up the 50-year timeline of the veterans announcement. Harper assured him that his government has invested $5 billion in additional measures over veterans, and accused the Liberals of voting against veterans and families. Trudeau accused the Prime Minister of prioritizing tax cuts for the wealthy over veterans and demanded an apology. Harper retorted that the Liberals should apologize for voting against veterans every single time. Trudeau gave one more shot in French, to which Harper repeated his answer in French.

Round two, and Randall Garrison and Rosane Doré Lefebvre asked about the Integrity Commissioner’s report into the RCMP falsifying records on their flights (Blaney: It’s before the courts, but the Commissioner said he was satisfied with the RCMP response), Sadia Groguhé and Jinny Sims asked about the backlog before the Social Security Tribunal (Kenney: It’s an appeal process, and we’re trying to reduce the backlog which is why we added 22 part-time decision-makers), Megan Leslie and François Choquette asked about the lack of action on climate change and oil and gas regulations (Aglukkaq: We are playing a leadership role), and ? Lapointe asked about the Cacouna oil port and Beluga whales (Kamp: We are taking measures). Marc Garneau asked about the new gun control bill and how they could explain it to the survivors of École Polytechnique (MacKay: We have to stand together, and support victims), and Judy Foote and Rodger Cuzner demanded Julian Fantino’s resignation (Fantino: We are making improvements, you didn’t vote for veterans benefits). Ève Péclet and Charlie Angus asked about SNC-Lavalin making improper political donations — party business and not government business (Calandra: We made changes with the Accountability Act), and Malcolm Allen and Pat Martin asked about the group of farmers being declined from an offer to buy out the Wheat Board (Ritz: None of that is true).

Round three saw questions on the World Food Programme funding for Syrian refugees, housing funding, Nutrition North, spectrometer research, cluster munitions, Mulcair returned to MacKay’s answer on École Polytechnique (MacKay: The emphasis was women and girls should not have been targeted) and demanded the withdrawal of C-42 if he is sincere about better protecting women (Blaney: This bill actually makes people safer), and the Energy East pipeline in Quebec.

Overall, it was still fairly punchy, but Mulcair didn’t lose his temper or get rebuked by the Speaker today. Instead, that honour fell to Pat Martin, who remains full of class in case there was any doubt. It was encouraging that Mulcair got up in the final round to ask some follow-up questions, but he should have been able to at the time that MacKay made his first answer, not ten to fifteen minutes later. It’s too bad that nobody can demonstrate an ability to think on their feet.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Rona Ambrose for a gold and black top and a black jacket, and to Jonathan Genest-Jourdain for a dark grey suit with a crisp white shirt and a light blue vertical-striped tie. Style citations go out to Robert Sopuck for a brown suit with a lighter brown waistcoat, grey shirt and bright blue printed tie, and to Cheryl Gallant for a cream lamé jacket over a black top. Special mention to Hedy Fry, who wins at accessories today.