After a busy weekend of foreign affairs matters, given the situation in Ukraine, it appeared that everyone forgot about the House as none of the major leaders were present, and there were a lot of empty desks. (It should be noted that Trudeau is at home with his new baby). To add insult to injury, Stephen Harper was holding a media event while in Toronto at the same time. So much for the primacy of the Commons. Leading off for the NDP, Megan Leslie asked about what the government has said to Vladimir Putin about the situation in Ukraine, and Deepak Obhrai read a statement in response. Leslie asked about how many Canadians were in the country and what was done to contact them, to which Obhrai assured her that they were in touch with those Canadians. Leslie changed topics and brought up the objections to the elections bill by Preston Manning and Harry Neufeld, but Pierre Poilievre recited the parts of the bill that Manning liked. Nycole Turmel repeated the same in French, and got the same response. Ralph Goodale was up for the Liberals, and returned to the situation in Ukraine, asking about the status of Russia in the G8. Obhrai repeated his previous statement of condemnation. Goodale changed topics to municipal infrastructure funding and the cuts to the Building Canada Fund. Denis Lebel insisted that the premise was false, and that they had tripled infrastructure funding. Dominic LeBlanc closed the round by asking the same in French, and got the same response.

Round two, and Craig Scott brought up the changes in the elections bill that diminished Elections Canada’s role on voter engagement (Poilievre: According to their own data, they are failing in that role so we are focusing their actions), and the issue of training people at the polls (Poilievre: Look at all the problems it’s vouching), Alexandrine Latendresse asked about parties appointing poll supervisors (Poilievre: There are currently a number of officers who are recommended by first and second place parties and Elections Canada has a veto), Ève Péclet and Charlie Angus asked about the meeting between Nigel Wright and Mike Duffy in the PM’s personal boardroom (Calandra: The PM was under the impression the meeting was to tell Duffy to repay his expenses), Robert Aubin and Peggy Nash asked about the lack of information on EI funds in this year’s Main Estimates (Andrews: We reached an agreement on the Canada Job Grant!) Judy Sgro asked about manufacturing jobs and the digital strategy (Moore: Look at all of the things we’re doing for the digital world), and John McCallum asked about the various contradictory positions on income splitting (Flaherty: Your leader said that budgets balance themselves). Chris Charlton asked about the “alternative data sources” that Statistics Canada is exploring (Moore: It seems absurd to have several government agencies collecting the same information), Guy Caron asked about cuts to CRA (Findlay: We haven’t cut auditors), Olivia Chow asked about VIA rail cuts to the Atlantic (Raitt: VIA Rail is responsible for its own operational decisions), and Hoang Mai asked about the lack of numbers in the Champlain Bridge business plan (Lebel: We haven’t sent out calls for tender yet).

Round three saw questions on budget cuts to the organisation assisting with First Nations land claims, the HMCS Protecteur fire and the problems with procuring the ship’s replacement, Preston Manning’s criticisms of the elections bill, ad spending over help for veterans, the prairie grain backlog, cuts to the Bagotville base, the Canada Post cuts, the Champlain Bridge, and the constitutionality of the Americans’ FATCA provisions.

Overall, it was a pretty sleepy day, and one without any substance. Aside from the statements in lieu of answers on the response to the situation in Ukraine, the most galling example was when Scott Andrews ignored a question on the Estimates to give an answer on the Canada Job Grant. The Estimates are one of the foundational functions of Parliament — the means by which the legislature controls the public purse in order to hold the government to account. That a parliamentary secretary could so casually ignore that kind of fundamental questions is a heinous act that needs to be called out for what it is.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Lisa Raitt for a purple top with a long black-on-black houndstooth print jacket, and to James Bezan for a light grey suit with a pale lavender shirt, a purple pocket square and a purple tartan-patterned tie. Style citations go out to Jean Rousseau for a black suit with a fluorescent orange shirt and a cream and orange paisley tie, and to Cathy McLeod for a black turtleneck with a sparkly gold and black patterned jacket.