Despite the fact that it was a Monday, none of the leaders save Elizabeth May were present in the Commons. Denis Lebel led off, blaming Chrystia Freeland for being unable to conclude the Canada-EU trade agreement, or any other trade agreement. Freeland insisted that Canada had done its job, but this was an internal dispute for the EU to resolve and then come back to Canada, and that she remained committed to it. Lebel repeated the question in English word-for-word, and Freeland elaborated on her answer. Lebel demanded that the PM head to Europe to salvage the deal — as though that was how negotiations work, and Freeland started getting feistier about the previous government’s record. Gerry Ritz picked up the torch, and took on a more bullying tone with a pair of questions that belittled Freeland for her visible emotion in Brussels, and saying that she needed the “adult supervision” of the Prime Minister. Freeland had none of it, and hit back on the previous government’s record on the stalled agreement and expensive signing ceremonies for a deal that wasn’t done. Murray Rankin led off for the NDP, and kept up the same topic, but from the angle that they needed to drop the investor-state dispute resolution mechanism. Freeland listed socialist governments in Europe who had signed onto the deal, trying to prove it’s not just an ideological divide. Niki Ashton then got up to decry the comments from the Finance Minister about “job churn,” decrying precarious work. MaryAnn Mihychuk said that the new work environment had a lot to do with technology but they were helping Canadians. Ashton demanded that Morneau and the PM attend their precarious job summit, to which Mihychuk reminded her that they have a youth workers council.

I guess this is to be expected. But CPC's line on this today is transparently disingenuous.

— Michael Den Tandt (@mdentandt) October 24, 2016

Conservatives demand Trudeau put an "adult at the table" to get CETA done – which seems to be an unsubtle dig that a girl can't do it.

— Tonda MacCharles (@TondaMacC) October 24, 2016

Round two, and Candice Bergen got up to read some condemnation about the lack of action on CETA (Freeland: We salvaged the job you didn’t finish), Pierre Poilievre demanded small business tax cuts (Mihychuk: We have cut EI premiums for small businesses), and Gérard Deltell decried the deficit (Morneau: We are investing in growth) and the changes to mortgage rules (Morneau: We took the right steps to secure the housing market). Romeo Saganash wanted action on the Muskrat Falls dam (Wilkinson: The province has the lead on this), and Charlie Angus demanded the government stopped fighting residential school survivors in court (Jones: We have made this a priority). Jacques Gourde and Blaine Calkins tried to keep up the “cash for access” line (Chagger: All parties fundraise and we followed the rules; Garneau: The appointment of Jim Spatz was under a transparent process). Sheri Benson decried that the government hasn’t rolled over to public sector unions (Brison: We have immense respect for them and reversed the regressive measures the previous government put in and are negotiating in good faith), and Daniel Blaikie asked about RCMP pay raises (Goodale: We will take their requests under consideration).

And we're back to the use of "millionaire" as an epithet, and tossing around the word "elitist." And this is from the CPC. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) October 24, 2016

"The Godfather"? Seriously? #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) October 24, 2016

Round three saw questions on Yazidi refugees, Canadian mining projects in Latin America, thalidomide survivors, regional development ministries, the agriculture minister’s chief of staff, judicial advisory council appointments, Bombardier job losses, the Phoenix pay system, CETA negotiations, and healthcare transfers.

Overall, it was not a terrible day, but I found the tone that the Conservatives took with regards to Chrystia Freeland and CETA negotiations to be extremely distasteful, from belittling her visible emotion and calling for “adult supervision,” giving it a particularly sexist tone that rankled. This was particularly obvious with the derisive laughter when Freeland defended being emotional, and stating that she was still tough. The demands that the PM get on a plane in order to save the deal were also ridiculous because you don’t get the head of government from one country to discuss terms with the head of a regional government in another country. Would we appreciate it is the president of France flew over to Quebec to talk to their premier in a similar situation? I hardly think so, which is why these Conservative demands are particularly tone deaf and outrageous.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Frank Baylis for a tailored black suit with a crisp white shirt and a patterned purple tie and purple pocket square, and to Michelle Rempel for a black top with fantastic tailored construction including rolled sleeves, paired with a black skirt. Style citations go out to Yasmin Ratansi for a fluorescent pink jacket with a dark blue top, and to Michel Picard for a rather casual white shirt/blue sweater/tan brown jacket combo with blue jeans and no tie.