Though Harper was off in the Baltic Sea visiting our frigate there, the other leaders were in the Commons for another QP running on fumes. Mulcair led off, flirting with libel with his assertions about the AG report on the Senate — grossly mischaracterising what was found. Paul Calandra reminded him that the non-partisan House Administration found problems with their satellite offices, and that he should repay them. Mulcair wanted Harper to take accountability for the senators he appointed, but Calandra repeated the satellite offices line. Mulcair then gave complete falsehoods about why Marjory LeBreton resigned as leader in the Senate, and got the same response from Calandra. Mulcair brought up Senator Carolyn Stewart Olsen and wondered about other senators who repaid expenses before the audit — which has nothing to do with the government. Again, same answer from Calandra. for his final question, Mulcair wanted the PM to ask the Pope to apologise for residential schools. Bernard Valcourt took this one, and gave some bland assurances. Justin Trudeau was up, and wondered about the Prime Minister’s 57 patronage appointments to the Senate as a lack of a desire for real reform. Paul Calandra said that Trudeau’s position made no sense, that he would appoint Liberals to appoint non-partisan senators. Trudeau gave a pitch for his plan in French, got derision from Calandra about relieving Liberal senators from the burden of having to attend his caucus meetings. Trudeau wanted the Prime Minister to end partisan appointments, but Calandra gave some broad-based derision of the Liberals in response.

Round two, and Irene Mathyssen, Ève Péclet, Alexandre Boulerice and Charlie Angus concern trolled about the Auditor General’s report (Calandra: Your satellite offices need repayment), and Craig Scott condemned the Senate for not defeating C-51 (Blaney: We’re fighting terrorism). Chrystia Freeland wondered about delays to a trade agreement with Ukraine (Fast: We are at the table), and Emmanuel Dubourg and Ralph Goodale asked about enhancing the CPP (Sorenson: We don’t want more payroll taxes). Murray Rankin and Pierre Dionne Labelle decried tax havens (Keddy: We have zero tolerance for tax evasion), and Laurin Liu and Malcolm Allen asked rhetorical questions about Supply Managment (Bernier and Fast: We are defending Supply Management).

Round three saw questions on job creation, inspections on Public Works buildings, defence budget cuts, Manitoba First Nations being deliberately flooded out, postal services in French, Mulsims facing an increase in hate crimes, issuing a visa from a homophobic and misogynistic singer, and the increasing noise of new military helicopters affecting communities near military bases.

Overall, it was not another great day, with Mulcair again flirting with libel (were he not protected by parliamentary privilege) in his gross mischaracterization of the AG report into the Senate, and he gave outright falsehoods as to certain senators. Their questions soon blew past the bounds of what is within the administrative responsibility of government, and yet the Speaker said nothing. It wasn’t until well past the halfway mark, when Chrystia Freeland got up, that we got something that resembles an actual question about accountability, and it wasn’t until well into round three that we had a response from a minister — Lisa Raitt — that they would look into an issue. Surely we can do better than this, no matter how late in the calendar it is.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Candice Bergen for a blue and teal wrap dress, and to Peter MacKay for a dark grey suit with a light purple shirt and a dark purple tie. Style citations go out to LaVar Payne for a grey jacket with a black shirt with white cuffs and collar and a white tie, and to Libby Davies for a black smock top with fluorescent flamingo-ish patterns and a black skirt.