ImminentLiberalMeltdownWatch Day Three - Liveblogging the post-QP scrums

Will the fizzling economy finally overtake the Coderre Affair in the race to capture the hypermercurial imagination of the national press? Tune in at 3pm as ITQ hits the Foyer for a third straight day.

(Hey, she has to find some way to keep the liveblogging muscles limber until House committees are up and running, right?)

2:57:42 PM
We’re baaaack! We being the nation’s ever-intrepid press, that is; the nation’s elected officials, whose intrepitude varies from day to day, are still holed up inside the House, Wednesday’s QP being the most likely of the week to run late. That doesn’t mean that there’s not plenty of scurrying and pre-scrum positioning going on, of course, although there is much gloom at the continuing absence of Denis Coderre. Funny, he didn’t always play so hard to get.

Speaking of sudden shyness, ITQ can report that the Liberals’ much — okay, slightly — ballyhooed morning media availabilities with the leader seem to have gone the way of, well, Denis Coderre, ever since Monday’s installment, which marked the start of the newscycle of their discontent.

3:06:17 PM
Mill, mill, mill. I swear, it’s amazing there aren’t more head injuries, what with so many of us bent over our BlackBerries amid all those potentially lethal columns.
3:08:24 PM
And here’s Gilles Duceppe, who is — or at least, has been for the last few days — invariably the first politician at the mic. Then again, why wouldn’t he be? Of all the leaders, his shrug is the most convincing.

He’s being asked about the latest supply bill — which was introduced earlier today amid much less fanfare than the last — and says that they’ll read it over to ensure no poison pills have found their way in, but will otherwise support it.

3:12:16 PM
The all but unilingual nature of Duceppe’s press conference has rendered ITQ sufficiently bored to wander off to a different corner of the Foyer; the Liberal mic — or the one they usually use — continues to stand unused, forlorn and forgotten.

3:14:40 PM
There we go — turns out it’s David McGuinty’s turn to pretend he’s going to be asked about something other than Denis Coderre! Congratulations/condolences! He’s explaining how the environment minister once again misled the House, and the American people, by suggesting that Prentice is “fabricating numbers” and ‘hiding behind Mamma Obama’s skirt’ while the Americans are bringing in “real targets.” Why? Because he has ‘no plan’ and is hidng behind Obama’s action on climate change.

3:16:43 PM
And here’s Jack Layton, who is “very concerned” about how something is unfolding — it’s not clear what, exactly, but it has something to do with jobs and ordinary Canadians, and probably kitchen tables.

The trouble with everything he says, of course — all the charges he hurls against the government eventually lead to the same question: “So, will you vote against them?”

3:18:59 PM
Ahh, okay, the official rumour de jour is that the Ways and Means motion – the next one, that is – may include measures to impose the softwood tax on producers, which is being viewed — quite reasonably — as a potential poison pill. Layton, however, doesn’t want to talk about bad medicine; Canadians want parliament to — yes, work — but if the PM keeps throwing out poison pills and “poking people in the eye,” he may bring this place “crashing down”.

You think maybe he’s been reading Colleague Wells?
3:20:33 PM
As for the HST, he wants to remind us that *his* party is the only one to have rolled back tax harmonization — in Saskatchewan — which means they’re not likely to vote for it here. Or something like that; he’s being very cagey on just what the NDP will *do*.

3:22:06 PM
A question from the suddenly looming Evan Solomon — on Afghanistan, even: Would leaving the PRT after 2012 constitute a violation of the motion passed by the House? Why yes, it absolutely would, Layton says.

Not so absolute: his answer to the question of what his party will do tomorrow, as far as the confidence motion. Will they abstain? Not show up? “Depends on the flu,” he jokes, in a rare demonstration of self awareness.
3:24:08 PM
Meanwhile, in another part of the forest — er, Foyer — Stockwell Day is talking softwood, as well as Ways and Means. So, was this decision – the one on softwood, that is – a surprise?

Very loud parting question on Buy American, but it came too late — the minister had already made his escape.

3:29:02 PM
I swear it looks like Bob Fife is being scrummed right now, but that can’t possibly be right. Aha! It’s not — it’s poor Mike White, who apparently drew the short straw during this morning’s PMO comm meeting. He’s *also* doing his best to reassure reporters that This Is Not A Poison Pill. In fact, the entire PMO dream team has fanned out to do just that — it’s kind of adorable, really. This is what happens when you get a reputation for being too cute by half, you guys.

3:32:40 PM
Okay, that appears to be it for today. Wasn’t that enlightening? Ish? Sort of? I know, I know. ITQ misses her committees too.