This week in QP: Just that much closer to summer
A new Tory attack on Tom Mulcair and a debate about prostitution
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The Commons ambled ever closer to summer this week. No single issue dominated Question Period, but we got a taste of the Tories’ next attack on Tom Mulcair. We learned that the next privacy commissioner is nobody’s lapdog. And we witnessed the beginning of a debate about revamped prostitution laws.
On Monday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper chuckled, repeatedly, as he rose in the House. Harper put on his best condescending tone and, no matter what Mulcair asked, the PM’s reply was the same: the guy across the way is a conspiracy theorist. Surely not the last time we’ll hear that.
On Tuesday, Liberal MP Chrystia Freeland asked the government why it can’t conclude free-trade negotiations with Europe. She insisted that no final text means no done deal. Gerald Keddy, the parliamentary secretary on trade, replied with one of the laziest answers of the session.
On Wednesday, Justice Minister Peter MacKay teased the government’s approach to filling the next Supreme Court vacancy. He assured his colleagues that the Tories will consult widely, he said. But it sounds like he’s lost faith in a parliamentary selection committee normally charged with sending a short list of worthy judges to the PM.
MacKay remained front and centre on Thursday, a day after he’d tabled a bill meant to revise Canada’s prostitution laws. Given the immediate backlash the bill faced in the sex-work community, the NDP might have taken a harsh line in the Commons. Not so, at least not so far.
No more than a fortnight remains before the House rises for the summer. Barbecues are smelling better by the day.
MONDAY
Harper takes on conspiracy theorists
TUESDAY
Gerald Keddy’s lazy answer