With it being Thursday, it appears that the PM couldn’t be bothered to show up, and with Harper put, so was Trudeau. Thomas Mulcair led off, asking about the recent revelations of the PMO interference in a Senate audit around Mike Duffy. Paul Calandra demurred, and insisted that the Senate should answer their own questions, and when pressed, Calandra returned to the satellite office repayment talking points. Mulcair tried a third time, this time in French, and Calandra gave the same in both languages. Mulcair switched back to English, so Calandra did too, now adding the inappropriate mailings into his list of NDP sins. Mulcair kept reading from the email in question, and accused the PM of obstruction of justice. Calandra called it ridiculous, wanted the courts to do their job, and demanded the NDP repay their millions. For the Liberals, Domininc LeBlanc kept up the topic, to which Calandra demanded the Liberals repay the “missing $40 million” from Adscam, and noted that Trudeau’s home is worth $2 million. Sean Casey asked the same again in English, adding in the “Albertastan” and soviet jokes, but got no different response from Calandra.

Round two, and Annick Papillon and Charlie Angus asked the very same question (Calandra: Satellite offices! You were singled out for gerrymandering!), Megan Leslie asked about Peter Penashue’s official agent being charged — under the guise of asking for new rules to punish people who make false reports to Elections Canada (Calandra: Laundry list of sins), and Jinny Sims and Sadia Groguhé asked about the lapsed funding for youth employment (Poilievre: We came in under budget). Ralph Goodale denounced income splitting to tout the Liberal plan (Poilievre: You would raise taxes), and Rodger Cuzner brought up the government ad spending in lieu of spending on youth employment (Poilievre: We are creating jobs). Claude Gravelle asked about francophone immigration outside of Quebec (Menegakis: We have a plan to meet the objective), and Niki Ashton and Romeo Saganash denounced the government for voting against C-641 (Valcourt: We have the Charter already).

Round three saw questions on obsolete RCMP rape kits, new banking fees, the gender wage gap, that blogger imprisoned in Saudi Arabia, nuclear projects, the Quebec City bridge, and francophone immigration.

Overall, it was a pretty repetitive day, with the same PMO-Duffy question being asked continuously without building a coherent narrative, MPs focused entirely on their scripts. They knew Calandra wouldn’t provide an answer, but rather than try and ask questions that would take that into account, they went with scripts that presupposed that Harper was in the Chamber. It plays poorly and just gives Calandra the opportunity to run his mouth. There are better ways to ask these questions, but that might mean thinking on their feet, which apparently most MPs are incapable of anymore. As for the Liberals, they continued to spend an inordinate amount of time touting their own platform than asking real questions. While not as bad as yesterday, it was still egregious.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to James Bezan for a medium grey suit with a lavender shirt and a purple tie and pocket square, and to Stella Ambler for a white three-quarter sleeved dress with a structured waistline. Style citations go out to Cheryl Gallant for a copper lamé bolero jacket with a taupe dress, and to Bal Gosal for a blue grey suit with a pale green-tinged yellow shirt and yellow tie. Dishonourable mention goes out to Sadia Groguhé for a black top and trousers with a butterscotch yellow jacket.