The QP Clip: When in doubt, congratulate Quebec

This afternoon, Pierre Poilievre’s one-man show in Question Period never materialized. That’s because his boss, the prime minister, took his seat in the House of Commons and dutifully defended his democratic reform minister. NDP Leader Tom Mulcair asked Stephen Harper, repeatedly, to account for Poilievre’s verbal savagery directed at Marc Mayrand, Elections Canada’s chief electoral officer, at a Senate committee earlier today.

In Harper’s first response, en francais, the PM preferred to avoid the question. Instead, he congratulated Quebec premier-elect Philippe Couillard for embarrassing the Parti Quebecois in yesterday’s provincial election. In his second response, in English, Harper again offered his congratulations to the new Liberal premier. He just didn’t care for the substance of Mulcair’s questions. Oh, the gall of it all, as the stubborn government plays for the cameras.