Despite it being a Monday, many of the seats in the Commons were vacant, and neither the PM nor the leader of the opposition were present. Candice Bergen led off, and tried to make hay of Andrew Leslie being a character witness at the Mark Norman trial. David Lametti assured her that the department of Justice has cooperated and released all documents. Bergen disputed this, and repeated the demand to turn over documents, and Lametti repeated that all obligations were being upheld. Bergen trie a third time, got the same response, and then Alain Rayes took over in French to ask the same question,impressing upon the Chamber that this had to do with Davie Shipyard. Carla Qualtrough stood up to list the contracts that Davie was getting, and when Rayes tried again, Lametti gave the French assurances of cooperation. Jagmeet Singh led off for the NDP, and he demanded an end to fossil fuel subsidies, fo which Jonathan Wilkinson repeated that they were phasing them out by 2025 and would meet their international obligations. Singh repeated the question in French, and read the French version of his response. Singh wants more action on climate change, got more bland assurances from Wilkinson. In English, Singh demanded a return to 30-year mortgages, and Kirsty stood up to praise the national housing strategy. 

Round two, and Leona Alleslev stated that Leslie had lost faith in the government and resigned his portfolio, speculating that whatever he was saying at the Norman Trial was so damning that he was “forced” to resign (Chagger: This is blatantly misleading; Lametti: We are living up to our obligations in that trial), and Richard Martel and James Bezan continued to rail about the Norman trial (Lametti: The government is fulfilling its obligations to the court). Tracey Ramsey accused the government of appointing partisan judges (Lametti: We have set up a transparent, merit-based process, and all Canadians have a right to donate to political parties, and this neither helps nor hinders them). Erin O’Toole accused Trudeau’s “weakness” of allowing Huawei to disallow researchers who are critical of them (Duncan: We have intellectual freedom, and are following the advice of national security agencies on Huawei), and Pierre Paul-Hus accused the government of funding Chinese military applications via Huawei (Duncan: intelligence agencies are engaged), and he decried the position of the two detained Canadians (Oliphant: This isn’t about grandstanding but about working with allies to secure their release). Guy Caron demanded the government allow families to pass on businesses tax-free (O’Connell: We are creating a tax system that works for everyone), and Wayne Stetski worried about the report on habitat destruction (Fraser: This report provides a sobering assessment of the situation facing us, and we have an opportunity and an obligation to do something about this emergency).

Round three saw questions on China’s trade difficulties (Carr: we continue to engage and look for other markets, and have taken no possible action off the table; Bibeau: We are working as a team to engage with China), temporary foreign workers who had major tax mistakes from CRA (Lebouthillier: We are committed to ensuring that people get the benefits they are entitled to, and we are ensuring that the situation is resolved), pharmacare (Romanado: We are taking action on prescription drugs for seniors), a potential investigation on the Prime Minister’s trip with the Aga Khan (Chagger: We complied with the investigation from the Commissioner and the PM accepted responsibility), the Trans Mountain pipeline (Sohi: If you were sincere about the process on Trans Mountain you wouldn’t have voted to kill the funding for the consultations), the Canadian film industry (Rodriguez: I spoke to producers in Quebec, and we will continue to be there for them, and will have new announcements in the weeks to come), listing the Iranian Republican Guard as a terrorist organization (McCrimmon: The assessments for new listings are an ongoing process, and happen when they meet the legal threshold), judicial appointments (Lametti: Transparent, merit-based process), and equalization (O’Connell: You were part of the government when the formula was created and didn’t speak out about it then).

Overall, it was an odd choice for the Conservatives to try and make that much hay over the innocuous story that Andrew Leslie will be a character witness at the Mark Norman trial, but they knew full well that torqued headlines over the weekend about how he was supposedly “testifying against” the government when he’s not really doing so. For Leona Alleslev, however, to characterise this as him as having “lost faith” with the government and that was why he resigned his post as parliamentary secretary, and to claim that his (long ago) decision to testify at the Norman trial (to give a character reference) meant that PMO “forced” him to resign (they didn’t) was beyond absurd, and yet, this is likely to be all over Conservative shitposts in the days to come. That said, good for Bardish Chagger for calling it out as misleading, which she doesn’t always do. Nevertheless, for the Conservatives to spend this much time on the Norman trial continues to be a bit baffling, because I have a hard time seeing how this resonates with the everyday Canadians they are trying to build their populist brand around. On the NDP side, I found Singh’s demand for a return to 30-year mortgages to be a bit odd as well, because it’s not a policy that makes a lot of sense post-2008 financial crisis, and yet, it’s not the least nonsensical housing policy question that we’ve seen to date.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to James Bezan for a light grey suit with a white shirt with a  blue grid pattern, a blue and orange checkered tie and an orange pocket square, and to Celina Caesar-Chavannes for a blue dress with a creative one long sleeve/one short sleeve cut. Style citations go out to Candice Bergen for a black dress with blue and white florals with oversized sleeves, and to Arnold Viersen for a navy suit with a pale greyish pink shirt and a bright fluorescent pink tie. Dishonourable mention goes out to Cheryl Gallant for a black dress with a pale yellow jacket with elastic half-sleeves.