With the funeral for Senate Speaker Nolin taking place at the same time in Montreal, there were no leaders present in the Commons save Elizabeth May, and ensuring that it was going to be a pretty miserable day. Peter Julian led off, returning to the issue of Mike Duffy’s residency upon appointment (never mind that the story he was quoted about Duffy’s own concerns was repudiated). Paul Calandra responded by bringing up the satellite offices, and added in the new allegations of union representatives using parliamentary resources. They went again for another round of the same, before Julian raised job losses in the auto sector. Joe Oliver, present for a change, praised their investments in the sector and the tens of thousands of jobs that they saved. Sadia Groguhé was up next, asking a pair of questions about manufacturing slowdowns in French, and Oliver repeated his answer about all of the help they’ve given. Joyce Murray led off for the Liberals, raising the Deshcamps Report on sexual misconduct in the military. James Bezan responded that the culture was unacceptable, and they accepted the recommendations and were putting in place an Action Plan™. Murray listed off more of the horrors in the report, and wondered why no money was in the budget to address the issue. Bezan insisted that they were taking action. David McGuinty read more of the allegations in French, and accused the government of abandoning those victims. Bezan said that they were addressing the problems and would change the culture.

Round two, and Jack Harris and Élaine Michaud picked up on the Deschamps Report (Bezan: We are taking action), Andrew Cash and Annick Papillon asked about pay-to-pay fees for mortgages (Joe Oliver: We have a code of conduct), Peggy Nash asked about GM job losses and the Volkswagen deal with Mexico (Fast: That is about exporting parts), Mylène Freeman asked about Bell Helicopter job loss (Holder: We share those concerns), Guy Caron asked about TFSAs (Oliver: Look how many people use these), and Nathan Cullen gave some kitchen sink outrage (Oliver: You don’t understand that if the private sector keeps the money, it is not lost). Scott Brison asked about shrinking GDP figures (Holder: We are projected to have the strongest G7 economic growth), on the weak job market (Poilievre: Tax Cuts, Trade and Training™!), and Ralph Goodale derided the budget (Poilievre: You want to raise taxes). Irene Mathyssen and Isabelle Morin asked about retirement incomes (Poilievre: Look at how TFSAs would help), and Laurin Liu and Malcolm Allen asked about E.Coli cases from Canadian meat packers (Ambrose: There have been no cuts to food safety).

Round three saw questions on Francophone tourism outside of Quebec, on-reserve public safety funding, extending copyright for audio recordings, community mailboxes, Mike Duffy’s residency at the time of appointment, gang violence in Surrey, changes to the Temporary Foreign Workers programme in Quebec, the lack of action on climate change during the chairmanship of the Arctic Council, and the concepts of judicial oversight in Bill C-51.

Overall, it wasn’t quite as awful as yesterday, but it bears pointing out that whelmed there was very big news broken shortly before QP — the Deschamps Report — the NDP chose to lead off with Duffy again and leaving that report for round two. That meant the Liberals got to lead with it and ask the good questions, hammering the government. The NDP, when it got to them, asked a pair of scripted questions — one in each official language — and leave it at that, with no supplementals or to press on the matter. It’s hard to show that the issue is serious when they can’t treat it as such.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to James Bezan for a dark grey suit with a crisp white shirt and a light green tie and pocket square, and to Rosane Doré Lefebvre for a smart white collared shirt and black shirt. Style citations go out to Linda Duncan for a white dress with a busy multicoloured geometric pattern and a melon pink sweater, and to Matthew Kellway for a dark brown suit with a shiny pink shirt and an eggplant tie. Dishonourable mention goes out to Jinny Sims for a black dress with a bright yellow jacket that looked to be made of felt.