Monday after a break week, and attendance was pretty scare, particularly among the leaders. In Mulcair’s stead, David Christopherson shouted a denunciation of Bill C-51. In response, Stephen Blaney calmly explained that terrorists were targeted by the bill, not lawful protesters. Christopherson shouted about the Canadian Bar Association opposing the bill, to which Peter MacKay assured him that they were listening to experts, and touted the provisions for judicial warrants in the bill. Christopherson then changed topics, and shouted a question of when the Iraq mission extension motion would be tabled. Jason Kenney said that a motion would be tabled “soon,” and then denounced ISIS. Nycole Turmel asked the same again in French, got the same answer in French, and for her final question, Turmel noted the opposition of the government of Quebec to C-51. Blaney responded that he had already met with his counterparts. Marc Garneau led off for the Liberals, and noted the weak job numbers and wondered where the plan for permanent job creation was. Pierre Poilievre insisted that the only job plan the Liberals had was to raise taxes. Ralph Goodale asked about the cuts to infrastructure funds, but Candice Bergen gave a non sequitur response about family tax cuts. Goodale demanded more money for Build Canada, to which Poilievre repeated his red herring about higher Liberal taxes.

Round two, and Rosane Doré Lefebvre asked a both the civil liberty implications on C-51 (MacKay: We’re waiting to hear all committee testimony; Blaney: We want to hear from the daughter of the soldier that was killed in Quebec), Randall Garrison noted that even firearms advocates opposed C-51 (Blaney: Jihadi terrorists!), Charlie Angus and Ève Péclet wondered if the Conservatives would support the Ethics Committee investigating Diane Finely’s activities (Calandra: Loo at this laundry list of your sins; Finley: I thought this was a valid project in the community interest), Sadia Groguhé and Jinny Sims asked about the Microsoft Training Centre only hiring 20 Canadians (Poilievre: Look at how great our reforms are; Alexander: It’s a training centre and we are attracting investments), and Sims asked about a report that was not tabled on EI backlogs (Poilievre: We’ve increased our EI efficiency by 40 percent in 10 years). Scott Brison wondered where the budget was (Poilievre: We have a low tax plan), and why most of the jobs being created are temporary (Poilievre: Budgets don’t balance themselves), and Emmanuel Dubourg asked about the poor service results from CRA (Findlay: This is unacceptable, and anyone who got bad information should make a formal complaint). Hoang Mai asked about the environmental requirements in infrastructure proposals (Lebel: It’s up to provinces and municipalities to prioritise their own projects), and Mathieu Ravignat and Peggy Nash asked about $24 million on advertising Keystone XL to the Americans (Rickford: We are a world leader in resources).

Round three saw questions on abuse allegations on the national ski team, the Ring of Fire development, the Francophonie, remarks by Conservative MPs about Muslims, pyrotite compensation, rebuilding the Quebec City armoury, a correctional psychiatric centre closure in New Brunswick, shrimp quotas, concerns by the Quebec government, the PM’s musing about a carbon levy like Alberta has, and government advertising.

Overall, it was a pretty weak day, not only because there were no leaders present (not even a Jean-François or Elizabeth May), but the the quality of responses was terrible. Apparently Stephen Blaney’s response to any critism of C-51 is “Jihadi terrorists have declared war on us!” which is dubious in its veracity and not an answer to any of the questions put to him. Whoever advised him to respond that way should probaly give their head a shake and rethink their life choices.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Lisa Raitt for a dark grey jacket over a black top and trousers, and to Greg Rickford for a dark grey suit with a beige and black checked tie and pocket square. Style citations go out to Christian Paradis for a dark grey suit with a red check-patterned shirt and a red and black diamond-patterned tie, and to Cheryl Gallant for a gold lamé jacket with a green top. Dishonourable mention goes out to Larry Miller for a black suit with a lemon yellow shirt and a yellow and grey striped tie.