With the PM flying back from Italy, Andrew Scheer was still left waiting for his sparring match with Trudeau despite being fired up on caucus day. Scheer led off, mini-lectern on desk, reading the accusation that the Infrastructure Bank was to be used for buying favours of friends. Amarjeet Sohi responded with his well-worn reply that the Bank would free up capital for communities to spend it on other needs. Scheer worried that taxpayers would be left on the hook when loans couldn’t be repaid, and Sohi assured him that only projects in the public interest would go ahead and that they ensured accountability. Scheer read some more concern about risk and the government co-signing loans for the one percent. Sohi reiterated his previous points. Scheer then switched to French to lament the nomination of Madeleine Meilleur, and Mélanie Joly reiterated her usual points about Meilleur’s qualifications. For his last question, Scheer railed about Karla Homolka being found volunteering at a school, and Ralph Goodall fielded the question, noting the robustness of background checks. Thomas Mulcair was up next, railing about Meilleur and demanding a parliamentary inquiry into her appointment process, and Joly gave her standard reply. When Mulcair insisted that there were too many conflicts of interest, Joly noted that committees are independent, and reiterated previous points. Mulcair then changed topics, and demanded a free vote on adopting the Electoral Reform committee report. Karina Gould said it was surprising that the NDP wanted to adopt the report considering that they didn’t even agree with it. Mulcair then changed to the issue of KPMG, and Diane Lebouthillier noted investments in cracking down on tax evasion.

Andrew Scheer is worried about the One Percent™. The populist Venn Diagram between the CPC and the NDP overlaps even further. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) May 31, 2017

Exactly which "loophole" let Homolka out? She served her time. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) May 31, 2017

Round two, and Denis Lebel meandered to a question about Meilleur (Joly: We had an independent committee select a short list), John Brassard, Sylvie Boucher and Lisa Raitt concern trolled about the Ethics Commissioner process (Chagger: We have an open and transparent process). Nathan Cullen demanded the adoption of the Electoral Reform report (Gould: You didn’t even agree with the report), and Pierre-Luc Dusseault asked about tax havens (Lebouthillier: We are cracking down, and criminal investigations are underway). Maxime Bernier insisted there was no growth for government spending (Morneau: First quarter growth was 3.7 percent), and Mark Strahl returned to the Meilleur issue (Joly: Butts and Telford did not discuss the appointment with me). Kennedy Stewart asked about the Kinder Morgan review process (Carr: We had an additional process), and Jenny Kwan asked about the body of a suspected asylum seeker found near the border (Hussen: We discourage people from crossing the border illegally).

Bringing in the Ethics Commissioner process into questions about Meilleur is absurd. The EC requirement is for a former judge. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) May 31, 2017

Honest to Zeus, did NOBODY read the qualifications for an Ethics Commissioner? Cripes, these questions are ridiculous. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) May 31, 2017

Lisa Raitt insists she's serious as she asks a disingenuous question. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) May 31, 2017

Maxime Bernier says there's no economic growth.
This morning, StatsCan reported that Q1 GDP growth was 3.7%. US growth was 1.2%. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) May 31, 2017

Strahl: Why did you say…
Joly: I didn't. I said …
Strahl: Repeats first question. #sigh #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) May 31, 2017

This is your regular reminder that the previous government failed to replace ethics commissioner Mary Dawson when her term first ran out.

— kady o'malley (@kady) May 31, 2017

Round three saw questions on the Boeing investigation as it relates to procurement, Meilleur, marijuana prevention, nuclear waste storage, judicial appointments, the Infrastructure Bank, and the electoral reform report.

Overall, it was less of a pathetic exercise than it was the first couple of days this week, but it was also a major blunder. In one of the early questions to Mélanie Joly about the nomination of Madeleine Meilleur, she responded that while Meilleur may have spoken to Gerald Butts and Katie Telford about the Commissioner position, Butts and Telford didn’t speak to her about it. Nevertheless, the Conservatives didn’t actually listen to Joly’s response and thought they found their “gotcha” moment. Future questions were scrapped and new questions were hastily scripted and distributed, and they kept insisting that they were catching Joly in a lie when they simply didn’t listen to her response. While I would normally applaud the scrapping of prepared questions in favour of asking about previous answers given in QP, this was a fairly pathetic action because it was so clumsily mishandled. Meanwhile, I absolutely cannot believe that Maxime Bernier would try to insist that there was no economic growth in his question on the very day that StatsCan reported annualized GDP growth of 3.7 percent in the first quarter of this year. It’s just such a stupid mistake that handed Bill Morneau a good news talking point on a silver platter that one can scarcely believe it (and it makes one wonder about the seriousness of Bernier and his office that they would let this happen).

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Pam Goldsmith-Jones for a short-sleeved black dress, and to Navdeep Bains for a dark grey suit with a white shirt, purple and pink tie and purple turban. Style citations go out to Bev Shipley for a light blue suit with a white shirt and a yellow and black striped tie, and to Marilyn Gladu for a faded blue, black and grey patterned jacket with black slacks. Special mention goes out to Nicola Di Iorio for a bright red jacket with a white shirt, black and red tie and grey pocket square.