QP: Dusting off the cobwebs

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The first Question Period of 2015 took place on a cold day in the Nation’s Capital, with more than a few empty desks still dotting the chamber as MPs make their way back. The PM was absent, at that RCMP funeral in St. Albert, Alberta, but the rest of the leaders were present, which has become unusual for a Monday. Thomas Mulcair led off, asking about the our Special Forces painting targets for the bombing mission in Iraq. Rob Nicholson insisted that they were doing what was stated — advising and assisting. Mulcair noted that this was ruled out by the Chief of Defence Staff back in September, but Nicholson offered some bafflegab about shooting back when fired upon. Mulcair insisted that they never should have been put in harm’s way in the first place, but Immediately changed topics to demand the budget that will reflect falling oil prices. Joe Oliver insisted that other projections were more generous than the ones the government made, and that they would honour their promises to the provinces and families while balancing the budget. For his final question, Mulcair gave the demonstrably false “all of our eggs in the oil basket” meme, threw in the job losses from Target, and demanded a jobs plan. Oliver repeated the substance of his answer. Justin Trudeau was up next, asking about the government’s wrong projections about the price of oil and wondered what kind of a hole that put in the budget. Oliver said there was an adjustment of $2.5 billion, and they would base budget projections on private sector economists’. Trudeau insisted that Oliver was not sharing the figure that his officials gave him, and asked him whether they would use the contingency fund to balance the budget, based on contradictory statements. Oliver repeated his line about private sector economists, and then accused Trudeau of talking down the manufacturing sector. Trudeau then changed to the issue of Special Forces on front lines, to which Nicholson said that they need to be with Iraqi forces to assist and train them.

Round two, and Megan Leslie demanded families get help instead of corporations (Oliver: 4 million families will benefit from our plan), Nycole Turmel asked a confusing question about jobs (Kenney: Look at all of our jobs training programmes), Guy Caron asked about income splitting (Oliver: We are helping families; Kenney: Your plans will lead to disaster), Nathan Cullen gave some kitchen sink outrage about the fiscal situation (Oliver: Stop talking down the economy), and Ryan Cleary decried the lack of action on the CETA transition fund for Newfoundland and Labrador (Rob Moore: We support a fund for actual losses, and not a blank cheque). Chrystia Freeland wanted a plan to stimulate growth (Oliver: A drop in prices will have different effects on different sectors of the economy), Scott Brison denounced income splitting (Kenney: Look how great it is for these families), and which statement of Joe Oliver’s about oil prices should they believe (Oliver: We have emerged from the Great Recession faster than other countries). Sylvan Chicoine asked about the new veteran’s affairs minister’s plans (O’Toole: I’m proud to be minister), Peter Stoffer asked about the government’s responsibility to veterans (O’Toole: Here’s a quote from Robert Borden), and Wayne Maston and Pierre-Luc Dusseault asked about that blogger in Saudi Arabia (Yelich: We continue to call for clemency in this case).

Round three saw questions on the watering down of the Lac Mégantic report, racism against First Nations, Nutrition North, excluding on-reserve First Nations from job numbers (Kenney: I have raised this with StatsCan), Thalidomide survivors compensation, the Saudi blogger, H7N9 bird flu found in a traveller in BC (Adams: The patient is isolated and recovering and we are monitoring), the Iraq mission, the “oil bubble,” and our carbon reduction pledge for the next round of climate negotiations.

Overall, it wasn’t a terribly exciting day, but that’s not unexpected. I suspect that by Wednesday, things should really pick up. This having been said, Mulcair did well to point out some of the contradictions around the Iraq deployment, while Trudeau did better on the economic questions. The Liberals managed to have more pointed questions on the coming budget rather than some unfocused and blanket outrage, as we got from the NDP, but that’s not unexpected given the record of the past three years.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Greg Rickford for a tailored dark grey suit with a crisp white shirt and pocket square with a dark purple tie, and to Kelly Block for a crisp white collared shirt with a light blue sweater vest with black piping. Style citations go out to Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet for a pumpkin overcoat with a high neck and wide sleeves over a black long-sleeved top, and to Jonathan Genest-Jourdain for a brownish grey windowpane suit that likely came from a chesterfield, along with a light blue shirt and dark blue tie.