Tuesday, and only two of the three main leaders were all in attendance, possibly for the only time this week. Rona Ambrose led off, mini-lectern on neighbouring desk, and raised the subject of that Torys fundraiser that Jody Wilson-Raybould attended. Justin Trudeau noted that the rules were followed, the Conservatives were convicted of election fraud, and Conservatives had been convicted of election fraud. Ambrose said that when their government had a similar issue “from a mistake” that they paid it back — not actually true, as Shelly Glover attended a fundraiser with people who were looking to her for grants, and thus was not a similar situation. Trudeau noted that they only paid the money back when they got their hands caught in the cookie jar. Ambrose gave it one last shot but got the same response. Denis Lebel took over, and railed about the figures in the budget, and raised quotes from the parliamentary budget officer. Trudeau insisted that no, his government was being open and transparent. Lebel then raised the old bill C-377 and now it was all about union transparency. Trudeau reminded him that it was actually about using transparency against their rivals, which was not what his government was about. Leading for the NDP, Hélène Laverdière asked about the signing of the Saudi LAV export permits, and Trudeau said that he would not renege on a deal and he had confidence in Dion. Laverdière demanded the contract be made public, but got the same answer. Nathan Cullen then decried the lack of new GHG targets, for which Trudeau reminded him that they are working with the provinces. Cullen asked again in English, and got the same response.

Round two, and the rat pack of Blaine Calkins, Karen Vecchio and Jacques Gourde demanded to know when Chrystia Freeland booked her meetings in California, accusing her of booking them last-minute so as to be on Bill Maher’s show (Freeland: California is one of our largest trading partners), Gourde brought up the president of the Quebec wing of the Liberal Party (LeBlanc: You are confusing a number of issues). Murray Rankin was outraged about KPMG (Lebouthillier: We announced record funding to combat tax cheats), and Pierre Luc Dusseault brought up those CPA cocktail receptions (Lebouthillier: All invitations are screened for conflict of interest before they can attend). Bob Saroya, John Brassard and Alain Rayes asked about crooked immigration consultants targeting Syrian refugees (McCallum: It’s a crime, and those caught will be punished), and Brassard worried about all of the money spent to fix up military housing for refugees when it wasn’t needed (McCallum: We have found permanent housing for 87 percent of refugees so far). Georgina Joilibois and Roméo Saganash asked about the Catholic Church getting out of residential school obligations on a technicality (Bennett: We expect them to pay up).

Round three saw Ambrose get back up about statements the PBO made (Morneau: In the last months of the year, revenues to down and expenses go up), BC LNG projects, anti-scab legislation, defence procurements, our response to Russian aggression, palliative care, compensation for fallen firefighters, the government “having it in” for Bombardier, and EI supports in seasonal industries.

Overall, the Calkins/Vecchio/Gourde rat pack questions are getting really tiresome, because a) they’re not actually bringing up any scandal, but are simply characterizing the trip as a “vanity project” which is insulting to everybody’s intelligence, and b) they’re just asking the same question five times, rather than actually taking the answer and doing something with it, and even worse, smugly reading five different iterations of that same question with no actual substance. I get that they’re trying to take the sheen off of the government – I do, really. But this is not clever, nor funny, nor even really smart. If you keep making up imaginary scandals, then when something real hits, then it’s going to keep sounding like more of the same hollow, manufactured outrage that this is. This isn’t doing your job holding the government to account – it’s the cheapest possible theatre.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Jane Philpott for a black dress with a tan lace-like pattern along the front panel and a black jacket, and to Michel Picard for a black jacket with an old school gold patterned double-breasted vest with a white shirt and black tie. Style citation goes out to Nathaniel Erskine-Smith for a dark grey suit with a greyish pink shirt and a blue-green tie, and to Diane Lebouthillier for a pumpkin smock-like top with a black sweater.