Question Period in Brief

The word of the day "testiphony"....

A slip up by Muclair in asking a question of the Goverment, tripping over the word testimony, slipping as "testiphony . This about about sums up the day in terms of answers provided mostly by Paul Calandra.
 
Memorable Moments:  

Muclair: What is it about obeying the law this law and order government doesn't understand?

Muclair: why block if nothing to hide?  [ testimony by Gerstein and Runia before committee]

Easter: Will the PM come clean? (on spying and the NSA)  and "were there submarines in the fake lakes"  "or wiretaps in the gazebos?"


Van Loan: "in many cases the best answer to a question is a question"   and  "it is not the job of you, as Speaker, to determine the quality of questions"
         

 -[rising on May's point of order regarding rules in government answering the question it is being asked, as opposed to simply asking more questions in an effort to divert the original question- Speaker predictably rules he cannot rule on quality of questions]




Andrew Saxton: "Flaherty is the greatest finance minister in the world"   

-    [ in response to questions about blacked out personal per diem expenses]

Goodale's use of the term "fraud squad" in his questioning of why CPC Senators are blocking testimony from Deloitte partner Runia at Committee.

Clement: a T'was the Month before Christmas poem from the Treasury Board related to allowing federal employees, nay encouraging them, to decorate their offices/desks, etc in response to a clearly planted question.  [when I get this little poem I'll be sure to post]


Sobering Thought of the Day from QP

There have been 3 suicides in 48 hours by Canadian soldiers. God bless their families, and others in the service at this difficult time.

There are currently 50 public inquiries ongoing with regards to Canadian soldier suicides. These have been going on without conclusion for 5 years.


Final Thoughts

Today's QP focus, as expected, remained on the Duffy audit scandal and Senate Committee's actions this morning in not only not having Gerstein or Runia, senior Deloitte partner who was contacted by Gerstein, appear before Committee,but actually blocking a motion by Liberal members of said committee from challenging this decision.

In addition, the big news of last night, that the Conservative government allowed NSA to spy on world leaders during the G20 summit held in Toronto, made for some pointed opposition questions with no answers.

Neither Harper nor Trudeau were in the House today, making QP a rough ride for Muclair, who not only didn't get any answers around Calandra's tap dance, but somehow wound up in the middle of Calandra's musings about hypothetical expense claims from Muclair while at Stornoway.  On that issue, Calandra did a pretty good job of making those following QP wonder if there is a story there, having repeated himself at least four times making rebuttals to questions put forward by Muclair and the NDP.

Calandra also went on in other musings to imply that members of the Liberal caucus were under RCMP investigation, although not saying who. Time for Calandra to show us the "money" or be quiet. It remains to be seen if he will do either.

Twitterverse remained frustrated with Calandra's unending non answers to questions about why CPC Senators and presumably, the PM, are blocking Gerstein and Runia from appearing before Senate Committee.

Breaking news: LPC has put on notice motion to compel Runia to testify on Duffy audit. Debate on the motion will be next week.

Stay Tuned!