While some MPs may have been a bit bleary-eyed from the previous late night, it certainly didn’t make for a dull Question Period. Or perhaps, that’s why it took such a turn for the worse the longer it continued. Thomas Mulcair was up first, reciting his carefully prepared questions on why the government still hadn’t provided any figures for the planned changes to OAS, to which Harper assured him that there weren’t going to be any actual cuts to benefits. Mulcair then turned to the issue of Chinese telecom company Huawei being granted Canadian contracts after the US and Austraila barred them as security risks. Harper insisted that the US doesn’t dictate our policies. When Randall Garrison rose to keep asking about the same questions, Vic Toews said that the CBC story only told half the tale, and that his officials weren’t in opposition, while Conservative backbenchers chirped about people wearing tinfoil hats. Bob Rae got up to ask about the changes to EI and how worker protections were eroding as their rights would no longer be enshrined in legislation, but rather in regulation. But when he demanded that Harper produce said regulation now, Harper dodged and insisted that the appeals process would remain in place. When Rae turned to the issue that the government wouldn’t produce the data on how much would be saved in the OAS changes, Harper reminded him that the measures wouldn’t be coming into effect until 2023.

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