QP: ‘I’m ignoring that’

With Nycole Turmel off to the CUPE
conference in Vancouver and Stephen Harper at the G20 in France, only Bob Rae
kept it from being a B-team day in QP. Joe Comartin kicked things off by
railing against Vic Toews’ attack on defence attorneys yesterday, and kept on
about the question of funding for police to prevent crime rather than the
prison spending of the omnibus crime bill. As it was Jason Kenney’s turn to be
backup PM, he dutifully stood up to rail that the NDP was ignoring
victims and the wishes of the NDP government in Manitoba, then went after
Comartin for the comments he made about Justice Rothstein – which Rothstein
broke protocol to smack down Comartin over. Comartin said, “I’m ignoring that”

and asked the next variation of his question. Jack Harris asked about the same
topic, and Vic Toews and Rob Nicholson each got a turn at giving their own
variations of the same answer. Bob Rae, freshly emboldened after his party
walked out on the vote to confirm the new auditor general rather than
legitimatize the flawed process, demanded to know why the government
changed the process midway through, but Kenney stood up to say that bilingualism
for the position was “encouraged,” not mandatory as the posting
said.

Round two kicked off with Peter Julian
asking about the crisis in Europe and jobs back here in Canada (Glover: Go
Economic Action Plan™!); Hoang Mai bemoaned that Canadian families were
struggling – as apparently singletons have got it easy (Glover: Go Economic
Action Plan™!); and Alexandre Boulerice and Charlie Angus asked about the
questions raised during Tony Clement’s committee appearance yesterday (Baird:
We answered all your questions, nothing to see here). Scott Brison and Massimo
Pacetti asked about Baird and Clement’s admissions that they inappropriately used the
border infrastructure fund as the delivery mechanism for G8 legacy fund
projects (Baird: Go read Hansard), and Scott Andrews asked that Dean Del Mastro
be reminded about the independence of the judiciary regarding his motion on CBC’s access-to-information documents (James Moore: CBC needs to be accountable).
Christine Moore and Matthew Kellway closed off the round with questions about
last night’s Canadian Press story of
the spat that Industry Canada had over the F-35s (Fantino: These are the right
planes at the right time at the right price…).

Round three saw questions on prison
overcrowding and program funding, veterans suffering depleted uranium
poisoning, the trilogy of EI premium increases, refundable tax credits and pension
reform, more questions on the auditor general, cuts to Veterans Affairs, and the

possibility of a salmon virus. Elizabeth May got the last question of the day
and asked about the government’s abuse of time allocation. Peter Van Loan
assured her that they have a strong mandate.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Lisa
Raitt for her fitted white dress with the brown and teal patterns and a black
cardigan, and to Rob Clarke for his charcoal suit with the lavender shirt and
tie. Style citations go out to both Jacques Gourde and the honourable member from
Warhammer for wearing grey suits with fluorescent blue shirts and ties, and
to Isabelle Morin for a salmon-pink skirt with a too-busy boxy black-and-white
patterned jacket. Dishonourable mention goes out to Megan Leslie for a bile-yellow sweater with a grey top and black trousers.