As Mondays are the new Fridays, there were no major leaders in the Commons for QP, leaving the more unusual choice of Hélène Laverdière to lead off, asking about the humanitarian assistance for Nepal, and asked if the government would match donations as they have done with disasters past. Christian Paradis assured her that there was, and noted the $5 million fund they just announced. Megan Leslie was up next, and asked for a further update on assistance being provided to Canadians in the region. Paradis repeated his previous response, but didn’t tough on the actual questions. Leslie then turned to the budget, and the lack of action for climate change therein. Pierre Poilievre insisted that the NDP considered anyone making less than $60,000 per year are wealthy. Nathan Cullen then asked about tax breaks for the wealthy, to which Poilievre repeated the same answer. Cullen gave a rambling repeat of the question, and got the same answer. David McGuinty led off for the Liberals, asking about partisan advertising — not coincidentally, the subject of his opposition day motion. Poilievre insisted that they were informant families of tax decreases and benefits available to them. McGuinty pressed, wanting all government ads to be submitted to a third-party vetting. Poilievre instead plugged the benefits to parents who were not yet signed up to them. McGuinty then moved onto the lack of job creation figures from the budget, but this time Kevin Sorenson stood up to deliver the good news talking points on all the jobs the government allegedly created.

Round two, and Murray Rankin and Ève Péclet asked about Mike Duffy’s lobbying Enbridge (Calandra: $2.7 million you owe for illegal offices), Peggy Nash denounced the budget (Poilievre: We created jobs by decreasing taxes), Nash and Anne Quach and  auto jobs going to Mexico (Sorenson: Strongest job creation record in the G7; Fast: We want to open the world to our auto product manufacturers), and Sadia Groguhé and Jinny Sims asked about the EI tribunal waiting period (Poilievre: We put officials in place to deal with this and they are making progress). Chrystia Freeland asked about the TFSA’s long-term problems (Poilievre: selective misquotes), and Adam Vaughan decried the lack of real numbers in the budget, particularly around infrastructure (Lebel: John Tory likes our fund). Jonathan Genest-Jourdain asked about Aboriginal education underfunding (Valcourt: We have spent $10 billion and invested more in the new budget), Carol Hughes asked about health services for Aboriginal health (McLeod: Look at these measures we’re taking), and Romeo Saganash asked about cuts to welfare rates to First Nations in New Brunswick (Valcourt: Income assistance should be consistent with provincial rates).

Round three saw questions on opposition to Bill C-51, the lack of progress during Canada’s chairmanship of the Arctic Council, the lack of GHG targets in the budget despite U.S. goals announced, Conservative candidates being promoted on government sites, a veterans centre in London, ON, improving the living conditions of the unemployed, the NEB process on Energy East, and tax complexity.

Overall, it was a fairly blasé day, without a lot of action, or any real answers. I would hope the week gets better from here, but that might be overly optimistic.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Greg Rickford for a light grey suit with a crisp white shirt and a black tie and pocket square, and to Candice Bergen for a white dress with black patterning. Style citations go out to Anne Quach for a black and white striped turtleneck stitched together with a purple main body and longer sleeves, and to LaVar Payne for a dark grey suit with a black shirt with white collar and cuffs, and an off-white tie. Dishonourable mention goes out to Cheryl Gallant for a mustard sweater with a black leather jacket.