QP: He was talking about Greece

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Thursday, and wouldn’t you know it, and to my great surprise, Stephen Harper was actually present for a change. Neither Thomas Mulcair nor Justin Trudeau were present to face off against him, however, so make of that what you will. That left Peter Julian to lead off, and wouldn’t you know it, he started off with yet another Mike Duffy question, on the altered audit report. Harper, of course, rejected the premise of the question and noted that Duffy was before the court for his own actions. Julian moved to the pro forma question about Duffy’s residency, and Harper responded with a pro forma response about the NDP satellite offices. Julian moved onto the Senate invoking privilege to keep their internal audit from the court — not actually government business — and Harper responded again with the satellite offices. Niki Ashton was up next, and asked about the lack of response to the First Nations housing fund, and Bernard Valcourt read a statement about significant resources being allocated to meeting housing needs. A second round was much the same. Scott Brison led off for the Liberals, asking about relaxing labour laws that would make it easier to fire Canadians, which Joe Oliver supported. Harper insisted that Oliver was talking about Greece, not Canada, and slammed the Liberal record. Brison pushed on the issue, and Harper read the latest Conservative attack line about how Trudeau apparently wants a new mandatory payroll tax. Marc Garneau closed the round, asking about the same issue in French, and got the same answer about it being a discussion about Greece, and that the Liberals would raise payroll taxes.

Round two, and Isabelle Morin and Irene Mathyssen asked about the OAS changes and the CPP consultations (Sorenson: You would raise taxes; Poilievre: Liberals would raise taxes), Mylène Freeman asked about a sexual assault at the Royal Military College (Kenney: It is being investigated), Élaine Michaud asked about the slow response to the Deschamps Report (Kenney: They have accepted all 10 recommendations and will implement them), and she and Jack Harris asked about the proposal for a procurement committee (Kenney: We will ensure the RCN has all necessary equipment including supply ships), and Harris asked about further delays to the Joint Support Ships (Kenney: We acquired all kinds of other things!). Carolyn Bennett asked about the failure of the First Nations market housing programme (Valcourt: We allocated significant resources for housing every year), and Stéphane Dion and John McCallum asked about family reunification wait times (Alexander: The backlogs were created by the Liberals). Kennedy Stewart and Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet asked about the criteria for the Canada 150 infrastructure programme (Braid: Yay programme!), and Pierre Nantel and Charlie Angus asked about an appointment to the CBC Board of Directors (Glover: He is a highly respected Canadian).

Round three saw questions on bee health, Supply Management, the live-in caregiver programme, the violence in Burundi, some kitchen sink outrage from Nathan Cullen, the moratorium on the deportation of Haitians and Zimbabwaians, cuts to marine communications centres, retroactive legislation, and pipeline safety testing.

Overall, there were a couple of decent exchanges — pretty much Harper-Brison, but otherwise the Conservative insistence on shoehorning their latest attack on Justin Trudeau into as many answers as possible, even when it was to a question asked by the NDP. As for the NDP, Peter Julian asked the very same questions that Mulcair has asked for the past couple of days on the Duffy issue and asked them himself, highlighting just how scripted their whole operation really is.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Lisa Raitt for a melon pink top, light pink skirt and a sheer white overshirt, and to Jonathan Genest-Jourdain for a dark grey suit with a white and lavender checked shirt and a dark grey tie. Style citations go out to Mike Wallace for a white-grey jacket with a navy shirt, black trousers and a black-and-white checked tie, and to Pat Perkins for a black jacket with a busy white floral pattern with a black top. Dishonourable mention goes out to Susan Truppe for a yellow blouse with a black pantsuit.