The benches were pretty empty in the Commons on Monday, and apparently more than a few MPs were snowed in at their local airports, and none of the leaders were present. That meant that David Christopherson led off for the NDP, gruffly worrying about the BSE case in Alberta. Gerry Ritz confirmed that it was found and that they were still investigating. Christopherson wondered about consumer confidence, to which Ritz repeated that they were working with the farm in question and they put money in the budget to advance beef trading, which the NDP opposed. Christopherson then moved onto the back-to-work legislation for CP Rail, and the safety issues around it. Jeff Watson responded with some bog standard talking points about rail safety. Nycole Turmel repeated the questions in French, and Watson repeated his answers in English. Stéphane Dion was up for the Liberals, asking about the infrastructure deficit and the comments made by Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi, and would the government do something about it. Peter Braid gave his standard Building Canada Fund talking points in response. Dion pressed, and Braid repeated his talking points more forcefully. Dion was back up, noting the bulk of the investments were backloaded, but Braid insisted that they were better off than under the Liberals.

Round two and Randall Garrison and Rosane Doré Lefebvre asked about provisions in the anti-terrorism bill that appear to target civil disobedience (Blaney: We need tools to prevent terrorism), and then Doré Lefebvre asked about the thwarted shooting in Halifax and wondered about the minister’s definition of terrorism (Blaney: What great work from the RCMP), Wayne Marston asked why the PM hasn’t intervened in the Mohamed Fahmy case (Anderson: He has raised it and we are hoping it will be resolved), Linda Duncan and Hélène Laverdière asked for tougher sanctions on Russia (Nicholson: Canada has been a global leader in response to Russian aggression), and Laverdière asked how the PM could appoint a minister of foreign affairs who is not bilingual (Nicholson: Reads a statement on bad French), and Françoise Boivin and Charlie Angus asked about reports that Nova Scotia judges tend to be Peter MacKay’s friends (Dechert: These are eminently qualified and were vetted by judicial advisory councils). Joyce Murray asked about the reduced flying times for RCAF pilots (Kenney: We are proud of our rebuilding of the Canadian Forces), and Marc Garneau asked for details on when Harper spoke to the Egyptian president about Fahmy (Anderson: No real answer). Jonathan Genest-Jourdain and Carol Hughes asked about the roundtable on missing and murdered Aboriginal women (Leitch: I met with numerous organisations), and Claude Gravelle asked about a train derailment over the weekend (Watson: TSB is investigating), and Hoang Mai asked about a December derailment where the conductor said she didn’t have enough training (Watson: We have committed to this post-Lac Mégantic).

Round three saw questions on a Quebec observatory that nearly had to close, the lack of support for Quebec City including a rail bridge there, the lack of visas for Chinese visitors and business people, funding for CBC, the Nova Scotia judicial appointments, funding for the Bagotville base, municipal infrastructure, the Canada-EU trade agreement, and the need for a debate on death with dignity.

Overall, it was a fairly lacklustre day, and it was particularly disappointed that nobody actually asked about the resolution of the CP rail strike as it happened during QP and the minister was present. Sadly, it wasn’t in any of their pre-arranged scripts, so they couldn’t actually think of their feet and ask a simple question. You know, the way that MPs clearly should be able to do.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Candice Bergen for a black dress with a half-sleeved indigo jacket, and to Rob Clarke for a black suit with a crisp white shirt and a patterned fuchsia tie. Style citations go out to Colin Carrie for a chocolate brown suit with a light cranberry shirt and a brown spotted tie, and to Shelly Glover for a red jacket, white top and black floral-printed skirt.