It’s the first full sitting of the new parliament, which includes the first Question Period of the new session. Hooray! It’s going to be exciting, but there remains so much to be seen, so it’s hard to pre-judge the whole thing. Not to mention, the Liberals are keen to change the rules around QP by the New Year, so what happens this week may be a glimpse into a future that never will be. Will Speaker Regan enforce his heckle ban? Will MPs respect it? While Kady O’Malley offers a preview of what to expect, and the rest of the Ottawa Citizen staff gives their expectations for some of the match-ups, I’ll offer a few of my own observations. First of all, the first few QPs of any new parliament aren’t likely to be exciting because, frankly, everyone’s still a bit sanctimonious at this point. There’s all this hope and optimism, and of course they’re going to be civil and constructive because why wouldn’t they be? It’s also early enough that there really haven’t been too many screw-ups or missteps by the new government yet, so there’s not too much for the opposition to sink their teeth into just yet. We’ll see if Trudeau is going to show up, and how many questions he’ll answer, seeing as he plans to change the rules so that he’ll only be required to show up one day per week (but answer all questions on that day). As for some of these match-ups the Citizen staff came up with, well, it’s pretty obvious that they didn’t really watch QP in their last parliament because some of their descriptions and predicted “winners” are complete nonsense. Advantage Irene Mathyssen over Kent Hehr? Seriously? Mathyssen who reads her questions with sheets of legal-sized paper in front of her face is more impressive than Hehr, who has years of provincial experience? Sorry, no. Cullen as a “strong performer?” Seriously, did anyone actually listen to him ask questions in the last parliament? Because he didn’t so much ask questions as give soliloquies as to how terrible the government was with no actual question asked. Not sure how that makes him a “strong performer.”

Good reads:

• First up on the agenda is that tax cut the Liberals are promising, but the other two parties aren’t too keen on the idea.
• The two Senate leaders, Carignan and Cowan, say that a non-partisan Senate isn’t possible – simply a less partisan one, which isn’t just a debating chamber.
• Christy Clark apparently doesn’t understand the concept of regional, not provincial, equality in the Senate, or the way it is designed to protect minority provinces.
• Catherine McKenna has been named as one of 14 international ministers to act as a facilitator at COP21 – an honour Canada has been denied the past decade.
• Here’s an interesting dialogue between Indigenous and Muslim Canadians.
• Two newly arrived Syrian refugee brothers attended the Speech From the Throne, and here is their story.

Odds and ends:

Here’s a look inside the newly renovated Sir John A Macdonald building, which houses Parliament’s new ballroom.

Here’s what research tell us about the profile of radicalized individuals.