With John Baird’s big resignation speech out of the way, and all of the leaders present in the Chamber, it had the makings of a more exciting day. Thomas Mulcair led off, asking about the job losses at Target and wondered where the budget was — odd, considering that Target’s closure has absolutely nothing to do with the government. Harper insisted that he put out a number of economic measures, and read a quote from the CFIB that called the NDP’s measures “dumb and anti-small business.” Mulcair read a competing quote where the head of the CFIB praised an NDP proposal, then asked the same question again. Harper, in turn, doubled down on his answer. Muclair read the same quote yet again, then gave an anecdote about being in a Legion Hall in Sudbury before demanding to see the budget again, giving Harper yet another option to repeat the “dumb and anti-small business quote.” Mulcair railed about all of the eggs being in the “extractive basket” — not remotely true mathematically — and Harper bashed on the NDP being high tax. Mulcair gave a convoluted question about corporations sitting on dead money before demanding help for the middle class and a budget. Harper listed off a number of actions he announced. Justin Trudeau was up next, and decried the problems of the middle class and wondered why the government was giving tax breaks to those who didn’t need them. Harper praised the help they were giving families including a tax cut. Trudeau noted the cuts to infrastructure investments, and said the government’s priorities were wrong when they wanted to help the wealthiest 15 percent of Canadians. Harper reiterated how great his policies were for families. Trudeau then changed topics and wondered about a statement that Peter MacKay once upon a time about the need for parliamentary oversight of national security. Harper insisted that SIRC was robust and functioned well.

Round two, and Rosane Doré Lefebvre asked about the new anti-terror bill and the reduction of oversight (Blaney: You voted against increasing CSIS’ budget, and we’re at war with Jihadis), Murray Rankin repeated Trudeau’s question quoting MacKay (Blaney: War with Jihadis! You oppose stopping terrorists), and more attention to de-radicalisation (Blaney: You oppose stopping terrorists), Wayne Marston asked about Mohamed Fahmy’s case (Anderson: We hope to have news soon), Paul Dewar asked about names not on the Russian sanctions list (Anderson: We call on Russia to ceasefire and stop supporting proxies), and he and Hélène Laverdière asked about the arms trade treaty (Anderson: We already have high standards and we are concerned about lawful firearms owners), and Laverdière asked the same question on Russian sanctions (Anderson: We’re a global leader). Adam Vaughan decried spending on advertising instead of urban priorities (I missed the non-response. Sorry.), Stéphane Dion denounced the loss of the long-form census (Moore: We have high-quality information on all of Canada), and asked about a renewal about rejecting a Quebec institution bidding on the Champlain Bridge (Lebel: We are proud of progress on the file). John Rafferty and Sylvain Chicoine asked about funding for veterans (Lemieux: We have extended the services available), and Peggy Nash returned to the issue of the long-form census (Moore: High quality data!).

Round three saw questions on seniors poverty, the Champlain Bridge, the income splitting plan vs fighting poverty, Aboriginal hunger, rail safety inspectors, armoury rehabilitation, Supply Management, Canada Post service cuts, and carbon pricing.

Overall, it may have been a punchy day, but it was also mindless as Harper and Mulcair kept reading the same two selective quotes back and forth to one another, essentially just saying “am not!” and “are too!” over and over again. Well done, guys. I was also surprised that Mulcair would focus on the Target layoffs, which the government has absolutely zero to do with, instead of the new anti-terrorism bill and the continued shocking lack of oversight therein. In fact, the only time it got mention was Trudeau’s last question, and the first couple of questions in round two — not a lot of attention to an important issue.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Bernard Trottier for a dark grey suit with a white shirt and lavender tie, and to Candice Bergen for a dark grey belted half-sleeved dress. Style citations go out to Sadia Groguhé for a bright orange top with a black and bright floral jacket with black elbow patches, and to Mike Sullivan for a slightly shiny dark grey suit with a bright teal shirt and teal Paisley tie.