Despite the fairly significant news that happened in Iraq over the weekend, none of the main leaders were present in the Commons for QP today, leaving it up to Megan Leslie to deliver a paean about the soldier killed by friendly fire, and asked for information about his death. Jason Kenney stood up to offer condolences, and said that there were three investigations ongoing. Leslie accused the government of hiding the nature of the mission, and asked how many troops were in a combat situation. Kenney repeated the condolences in French, and praised the advise and assist mission. Leslie asked about a debate and vote on a future mission extension, to which Kenney spoke about the importance of the mission against the “death cult” of ISIS. Carol Hughes asked about the crude oil derailment in Northern Ontario, to which Lisa Raitt assured her that Transport Canada was taking strong action. Hughes asked the same in French, and Raitt gave assurances that they were moving the DOT-111 cars out of the system, along with other measures. Marc Garneau led off for the Liberals, first giving condolences for the fallen soldier, and then asked about the CIBC job quality survey results. Pierre Poilievre stood up to announce that the 1.2 million net new jobs were of good quality and they were lowering taxes. Scott Brison asked the same again in English, got much the same response in English, and for a final round, Poilievre gave some route talking points about the Liberals raising taxes.

Round two, and Ève Péclet and Charlie Angus asked about the Duffy trial subpoenas (Calandra: What about your satellite office bills?), and Angus asked who would pay the legal bills for those witnesses (Calandra: You want to put the taxpayer on the hook for your offices), Jinny Sims and Sadia Groguhé asked about John Williamson’s statement about “brown people” taking jobs through the Tempoary Foreign Workers programme (Poileivre: He appologised immediately so let’s move on), Dany Morin asked about a forestry products plant closing (Rickford: We have done more for the forestry sector than anyone else), the London Kellogg’s plant closures and the jobs plan (James Moore: Look at all these new jobs we’ve created in the area), and Peggy Nash asked about the job quality report (Poilievre: Look at our jobs and lower taxes). Carolyn Bennett asked about plans to stop violence against Aboriginal women (Truppe: These are terrible crimes against innocent people), John McCallum returned to John Williamson’s statement (Polievre: He has apologised), and another attempt got no better response. Jack Harris and Élaine Michaud asked about the report on a soldier’s suicide (Kenney: We removed the restriction and have apologised), and Françoise Boivin and Randall Garrison asked about C-51’s privacy implications (James: Information sharing is important).

Round three saw questions on beef exports, the lack of consultation on the Thalidomide compensation announcement, money for Toronto infrastructure, cuts to CBC’s budget despite promises to protect it, lapsed funds for regional development, the plight of Haitians in the Dominican Republic, a family about to be deported, a strategy for veterans suffering from a certain health condition, train derailments and EI processing times.

Overall, attempts to deal with the death in Iraq were fairly weak sauce, trying to both offer condolences while trying get answers on what happened. It was a lot of walking on eggshells which didn’t suit the accountability function of QP very well. As well, Shelly Glover declaring that the Liberals didn’t “deserve” to ask questions on CBC funding was both bizarre and insulting. QP is about holding the government to account, particularly if the government made a gommittment and then broke it as in this case. It has nothing to do with whether she likes the questions or not — she is there to be held to account. It’s the backbone of our democratic system, and if she doesn’t like it, she should resign from cabinet.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Maxime Bernier for a tailored three-piece black suit with a crisp white shirt and pocket square along with a red tie, and to Stella Ambler for a black and grey patterns dress with a black jacket. Style citations go out to Sadia Groguhé for a black jacket with a loud red floral pattern over a black top and trousers, and to Dany Morin for a custard orange shirt with a taupe suit and a grey and orange tie.