My patience for self-aggrandising bullshit is at an all-time low, so you can image just how hard my eyes rolled when I heard that Justin Trudeau was telling a school group that was touring Parliament that his side is “serious and respectful” and the other guys like to shout, and how it was because when a there isn’t a lot that they can go after the government on, they make noise instead. Trudeau’s capacity for sanctimony is practically legendary, but this was gilding the lily more than a little. Now, I will grant you that since he’s been in charge, the Liberals have been far better behaved in QP than they used to be, and the clapping ban has lowered the level of din in the chamber by a great deal (though said ban is not always honoured). And yes, the Conservatives do yell and heckle a lot, but some of it is deserved when you have ministers or parliamentary secretaries who read non sequitur talking points rather than doing something that resembles answering a question. (They also yell and heckle to be childish and disruptive as well, but it bears pointing out that it’s not entirely undeserved). It’s also cheap theatre, and there is a time and a place for that in politics, and if we didn’t have it during QP, then I daresay that there might be an outbreak of narcolepsy on the Hill. But as with anything, it should be done judiciously and cleverly, and that’s not something that these guys are any good at, and so we return to the sounds of jeering, hooting baboons no more days than not, but that’s no excuse for sanctimony. There are no saints in that chamber.

With that in mind, my tolerance for the whinging and crying foul over the removal of Leona Alleslev as chair of the NATO Parliamentary Association is also mighty thin, for the sheer fact that when she crossed the floor, she wouldn’t be able to chair a parliamentary association. The way these things work is that a government MP chairs, and an opposition MP vice-chairs, and lo, the Conservatives already had a vice-chair on said association. Her removal was not retaliation, but it is a consequence. Now, there are definite questions that can be asked about the timing of said removal – two weeks before a NATO meeting that she has worked toward, and weeks after she crossed the floor (but I don’t know how often this association meets, so this may have been the first opportunity) – but that is far different from the caterwauling from the Conservatives about how the “supposedly feminist” prime minister was being mean to a woman and a veteran. (As an aside, could we please stop with this policing of the PM’s feminism? 99 percent of attacks attached to said policing have nothing to do with feminism). This attempt to claim the moral high ground is exasperating.

To add to all of this, the meeting where the removal happened was met with a bunch of disruptive, juvenile behaviour by Conservative MPs and staffers that included butchered singing, and *gasp!* drinking! Oh noes! Nobody behaved admirably in this situation, and nobody has any high ground to claim, so maybe we should all behave like adults around this.

Good reads:

• Following the stories of Adrienne Clarkson’s use of taxpayer funds for her administration, Justin Trudeau says they will review the programme.
• The Privacy Commissioner will be taking a “deeper dive” into StatsCan’s plans to acquire financial transaction data.
• The federal government announced new measures to protect the southern resident killer whales off the BC coast.
• The government announced “bridge funding” to help keep rural bus services running in places where the others haven’t picked up from Greyhound’s departure.
• The government released their planned immigration figures, and they show a steady increase through 2021 (and it’s worth noting we’re facing labour shortages).
• HMCS Toronto suffered a fire while deployed off Europe, days after HMCS Halifax also suffered a fire.
• Canadian and UK MPs are teaming up to call Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to an international joint committee hearing to get answers on the platform.
• The Public Accounts committee is putting the screws to federal departments over their failures to deal with Indigenous job creation funding.
• The Federal Court rejected CSIS’ bid for a closed-door hearing on a case involving demands to get SIRC to disclose if CSIS is spying on anti-pipeline activists.
• Senator Pamela Wallin is concerned about paid blood plasma donations, but with not enough domestic supply, we rely on imports of paid plasma from the U.S.
• Australia has ratified the TPP, the sixth country to do so which was the magic number, meaning that it will now come into force on December 30^th.
• More than half of Liberal incumbents have been re-nominated under the protected nomination rules, while others are deciding if they’ll run again.
• There are questions about Liberal MP Nicola Di Iorio and why he’s been absent while he hasn’t followed through on his intention to resign.
• The Ethics Commissioner is looking into Anita Vandenbeld’s robocall in support of her husband’s municipal campaign.
• Despite his party’s stated opposition to the New NAFTA deal, Jagmeet Singh nevertheless attended a reception to praise its completion.
• Maxime Bernier claims that his party has 30,000 “founding members,” but there’s no way to verify this claim.
• Creative accounting is keeping Calgary’s Olympic bid alive just a little while longer.
• Chantal Hébert lays out the problems with the way the Liberals’ debate commissioner proposal has been handled.
• Andrew Coyne says that while the Conservatives may be waffling on their “war” with the media, they are still at war with experts, and that way lies madness.

Odds and ends:

For Halloween, Tristin Hopper offers eleven true chilling tales from Canadian history.

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