QP: Counselling illegal behaviour

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It being a Tuesday, Stephen Harper was present for QP, a rarity these days — it’s too bad that neither Jusin Trudeau was (despite being in town but apparently had a thing with his children), nor Thomas Mulcair (who was giving a speech in Toronto). Megan Leslie led off, bemoaning the economic situation the country finds itself in. Stephen Harper disputed her, praising the post-recession job creation record. Leslie noted the drop in manufacturing numbers, using it to plug Mulcair’s speech, but Harper repeated his previous points. Leslie tried again, but Harper insisted that the NDP were only at the mercy of big union bosses, and that brought economic ruin in Europe. Peter Julian then picked up, and wondered why the government was allergic to democracy and the facts. Stephen Blaney responded, saying that the “group in question” supports a terrorist organization, and a second round in English went exactly the same. Ralph Goodale led for the Liberals, condemning the government for “counselling illegal behaviour” when it came to the destruction of those gun registry records. Harper insisted that the RCMP acted on the will of parliament, and that the Liberals simply wanted to revive it. Goodale ripped into him for the response, but Harper more forcefully repeated that it was the will of parliament, and that the Liberals hated farmers and duck hunters. Stéphane Dion took another kick at it in French, going after the retroactive legislation burried in the omnibudget bill to protect the RCMP, but Harper would not change in his talking points.

https://twitter.com/aaronwherry/status/610876361096495104

Round two, and Irene Mathyssen and Sadia Groguhé asked about manufacturing job losses (Poilievre: Your only plan for jobs is to raise taxes), Françoise Boivin asked about the Information Commissioner taking the government to court for that illegal destruction of data (Blaney: Parliament voted to abolish the registry), Boivin and Randall Garrison asked about the number of bills being tabled that won’t pass (MacKay: We are proud to bring forward bills to protect victims), and Charlie Angus and Alexandre Boulerice asked about taxpayer-funded photo ops (MacKay: We are working and you should too), and both asked completely torqued and insulting questions about that bogus Senate office issue (Warkentin: We expect senators to take what office building we give them). Scott Simms asked about muzzled scientists (Albas: You oppose transparency for First Nations and unions), Joyce Murray read a press release about the Liberal plan on electoral reform (Poilievre: You proposed mandatory voting, and the penalty is a tax), and Emmanuel Dubourg asked about audits of charities (Findlay: CRA operates at arm’s length and you want to politicize it). Kennedy Stewart and Laurin Liu asked about muzzled scientists (Holder: Our government supports science, technology and innovation), and Anne Quach and Chris Charlton bemoaned the government missing an aerospace trade show (Moore: We have representatives there and look at our budget).

Round three saw questions on refugee healthcare, removing parliamentary secretaries from committees (Van Loan: We have delivered results), muzzled scientists, eliminating service funding for a First Nation, the legal action with Cindy Blackstock, First Nations children in foster care in Manitoba (which was ruled out of order), the national pollution inventory, and temporary foreign workers in Quebec.

Overall, I think QP broke my brain today. The only highlight was Ralph Goodale giving the boots to Harper on the illegal destruction of gun registry data, but the rest? Terrible. Nearly all other “questions” were press releases about party platform planks or platitudes, but the moment that did me in was Pierre Poilievre insisted that the Liberal plan for mandatory voting would really be a tax on those who don’t vote. No, really. He actually said that. Send them home. Otherwise, I am this close to declaring that we should nuke it from orbit.

Sartorially speaking, Snaps go out to James Bezan for a black suit for a crisp white shirt and a light green tie and pocket square, and to Rona Ambrose for a dark grey jacket with a black dress. Style citations go out to Joyce Bateman for a leopard print sweater with a black v-necked top, and to Randall Garrison for a taupe suit with a yellow shirt and an orange paisley tie.