While Justin Trudeau was across the street meeting with Grand Moff Tarkin — err, US vice-president Mike Pence, Andrew Scheer and Jagmeet Singh were both absent. Candice Bergen led off, and she accused the government of capitulating to the American demands in the New NAFTA, to which Marc Garneau mocked the Conservatives’ original advice to capitulate and then listed the things they achieved in it. Bergen claimed the government agreed to hidden quotas in the steel and aluminium agreement, and Garneau again chided that the Conservatives wanted capitulation instead of retaliatory tariffs that got results. Bergen said that Trudeau got a bad deal, and Garneau expounded on the importance of the deal and the Liberal record on jobs. Gérard Deltell took over in French to lament the deal, and Garneau reiterated his previous response on Conservative capitulation in French. Deltell then turned to the alleged deal that CRA signed with KPMG, to which Diane Lebouthillier listed off the measures that they took to combat tax evasion, but also stated that she asked the department to review their processes for entering into agreements in the name of transparency. Ruth Ellen Brosseau read off for the NDP, and she demanded the New NAFTA be reopened, to which Garneau stated that the NDP was asking to open up Pandora’s Box. Brosseau then wanted guarantees to women getting healthcare that they choose — meaning abortions — for which Ginette Petitpas Taylor assured her that the government did support a women’s choice to have an abortion. Tracey Ramsey took over in English to demand that the New NAFTA be reopened, and Garneau repeated the line about Pandora’s Box. Ramsey went a second round, and Garneau read about how important the deal was.

Round two, and David Sweet, and Richard Martel returned to the steel and aluminium deal (Oliphant: We stood up for the industry, and we got the tariffs lifted), Martel asked about a consular case for someone in the UAE (Goldsmith-Jones: We are aware of ten situation and are engaged on it), Colin Carrie worried about the auto quotas in the New NAFTA (Bains: The auto sector benefited from this agreement), Erin O’Toole asked about the flexibility clause in the New NAFTA bill (Oliphant: This is a good deal and we will take every step to protect Canadian workers), and Arctic sovereignty (Oliphant: Our Arctic sovereignty is long-standing and we will defend it). Charlie Angus asked about the mercury treatment centre in Grassy Narrows (Bennett: Progress is being made), and Irving getting notified about media inquiries (Bains: We need to ensure that any information we release isn’t commercially sensitive). Pierre Paul-Hus and Pierre Poilievre asked about deferred prosecution agreements (Virani: There was a Gazetting process and had national consultations before it was in legislation; The Quebec decision was a preliminary inquiry about the evidentiary threshold). Pierre-Luc Dussealt worried about CRA signing an agreement with KPMG (Lebouthillier: The proceedings are independent of CRA, and I have asked CRA to review its processes for greater transparency), and Alexandre Boulerice worried about cycling deaths (Garneau: We have published guidelines, and have federal pilot projects).

Round three saw questions on Mark Norman (Cormier: Committees operate independently), the backlog at Veterans Affairs (MacAulay: We did invest $10 billion and hired 630 new front-line staff, but there was also a 66 percent increase in applications), salmon watersheds (Casey: We are aware of the issue of low summer flows, and we are engaged in finding solutions), veterans disability benefits (MacAulay: We will ensure that injured veterans are better off than under the previous police), the Paris targets (McKenna: Your environment plan is to jam through pipelines and making pollution free), softwood lumber duties (Lefebvre: We are taking action to ensure the sector is supported), the Manitoba transmission line to Minnesota (Lefebvre: We extended the timeline to ensure there was sufficient consultation), shoreline protection programmes (Garneau: We empathise those dealing with flooding, and we set speed limits to reduce the number of waves on the St. Lawrence; Lebouthillier: Yes, there is erosion due to climate change which is why we are taking action), and the evacuation of Pikangikum because of forest fires (Goodale: We were asked, we said yes, and assistance is being mobilised).

Overall, it was a pretty blah day, with the questions and tone all over the map, more indicative of a Friday performance than we typically get on a Thursday, which again adds up to the kind of exhaustion that is seeping in. On the questions of the New NAFTA, the questions were all repeats of the same ones we’ve heard all week, while Marc Garneau was reading responses — quite animatedly in some cases — but kept bringing up the scripted line about Pandora’s Box. Where the analogy falls apart is when Garneau said they didn’t want to “re-open” Pandora’s Box — but if you recall the myth, after the box (really, it wasn’t even a box but rather a pithos — a large storage jar) was opened and all of the sickness, death and evil were released, when the lid was clamped back down, hope was still left inside, though it could also have been translated to “deceptive expectation.” So if you’re re-opening the box, are you not releasing hope into the world? Or, if we accept the other translation, deceptive expectation, which I suppose might actually be fitting, given that both the Conservatives and NDP seem to think that they could somehow get a deal out of the random event generator that Trump is, of that he is capable of being dealt with rationally, which I think we all know he is not — in other words, both are setting up false expectations. Maybe the analogy works after all.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Karen Ludwig for a grey windowpane patterned dress and matching jacket, and go Terry Beech for a navy suit with a light blue shirt and pocket square with a burgundy tie. Style citations go out to Colin Carrie for a dark grey striped jacket with light grey slacks, a white shirt and a moss and burgundy patterned tie, and to Kate Young for a jacket that started off pink and faded to orange over a white top. Dishonourable mention goes out to Kevin Waugh for a black suit with a pale yellow shirt and a black, grey and yellow striped tie, and to Cheryl Gallant for a mustard yellow dress with a black jacket.