Monday in the Commons, and as is now usual, none of the major leaders were present. It’s not like holding the government to account is important or anything. That left Nycole Turmel to lead off, haltingly reading a question about the closures of Future Shop stores, and government inaction on job creation. Joe Oliver was actually present for the first time in weeks, but simply delivered a talking point on the the fragile global economy and their low-tax plan. Turmel asked again in French, and got much the same answer. Turmel then turned to the issue of Jason Kenney’s false statements about precision-guided munitions. Kenney stood up and insisted that the U.S. and Canada are the only countries with these capabilities. Jack Harris asked again in English, and Kenney insisted that the Chief of Defence Staff confirmed his statement, which…is not necessarily the case. For his final question, Harris asked about Canadian jets possibly coming under fire in Syria, to which Kenney said that he was told that the Syrians didn’t have radar coverage in that region. Marc Garneau was up for the Liberals, and asked about downgraded economic forecasts. Joe Oliver responded with a quip about high Liberal taxes. Ralph Goodale then asked for more investment in municipal infrastructure, to which Joe Oliver insisted that the Liberals wanted to weaken the oil economy. Huh? Another round offered no further clarity.

Round two, and Rosane Doré Lefebvre asked about government observation of legal protts before C-51 (Blaney: I have confidence that the committee will bring reasonable amendments to C-51), Randall Garrison noted that the government amendments were inadequate (Blaney: This bill has common sense measures), Anne Quach returned to the Future Shop layoffs (Poilievre: We will support all employees affected by the decision), Guy Caron asked about the budget date (Oliver: Stay tuned), and Peggy Nash asked once again about Future Shop (Poilievre: You want to bring in a carbon tax; Bergen: We are helping families with tax cuts). Stéphane Dion and Wayne Easter asked about cuts to RCMP budgets (Blaney: You didn’t support the increases we gave). Hoang Mai asked about the Halifax crash landing (Raitt: We want to thank the flight crew and first responders, and the TSB is taking the investigation seriously), and Ruth Ellen Brosseau and Malcolm Allen asked about rail grain volumes (Raitt: Pur action worked and grain is running at a strong rate; Keddy: Our shipments are higher than last year).

Round three saw questions on missing and murdered Aboriginal women, action plans for the Paris climate change conference, repainting the Quebec City rail bridge, the expiration of the Health Accord, the shrimp fishery, and a question on Shia militias retaliating on Sunni populations if ISIS is degraded.

Overall, it was a pretty terrible day, with a higher proportion of non sequitur answers than usual — and I’m not the only one who thought so. It’s almost like they have given up trying to even pretend to answer, and are just sticking to a limited number of scripts that are either a) yay low-tax plan, and b) the opposition would raise taxes, with a few “look at all the great things we did” peppered throughout, even if it had nothing to do with the questions being asked. That said, not all of the questions were quality either, such as those questions about Future Shop job losses, as though the government was somehow going to prevent them. As time ticks down on the 41st Parliament, we are reminded about how it can’t end soon enough.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Emmanuel Dubourg for a tailored black suit suit with a off-white striped shirt and a red tie, and to Rona Ambrose for a dark green and grey vertically striped dress with a black jacket. Style citations go out to Sadia Groguhé for a mustard top with black trousers and a garish floral jacket, and to Bal Gosal for a black suit with a mustard shirt and a black-and-yellow spotted tie.