Now That's Some Good Bloviating

Stephen Harper's first Question Period of the fall didn't go the way he wanted, I think. Despite a strong attempt to pivot away from the ongoing senate expense scandal (including new revelations that Senator Mike Duffy and members of the PMO beyond Nigel Wright colluded on Duffy's sweetheart deal) by harping - pun intended - on the new free trade deal with Europe, the opposition smelled blood in the water and wanted to track it back to the source: Stephen Harper.

Still, Harper left some of the heavy lifting in Question Period yesterday to the new new parliamentary secretary to the prime minister, Tory MP Paul Calandra. When NDP ethics critic Charlie Angus hit the floor to ask again about Duffy, it was Calandra that unleashed a rhetorical flourish that made his fellow Conservatives proud and left everyone else confused.

The Huffington Post took note of it, and so did I. Here's the exchange:

Angus: In light of the new revelations that have come out today regarding the extent of the involvement of the PMO, will the prime minister's aide perhaps tell us for example, simple question, how many lawyers from the PMO were involved in setting up the secret deal with Mike Duffy?

Calandra: Mr. Speaker, where have we come?

The NDP have put Gerry Mander in charge of that fix. The Liberals have a leader whose stage handlers are so afraid to have speak on any topic that they have muzzled him until 2015.

Thank goodness Canadians elected a strong, stable, national Conservative majority government, led by the best prime minister in the world, flanked by a minister of finance who has won awards, with the strongest cabinet in Canadian history and Conservative members of Parliament working all over the country to hope for hope, jobs and economic prosperity.

Those are the reasons that I represent.

Say what? It takes a rare rhetorical flourish to be equal parts sentimental and dickish at the same time, but Calandra slam dunked it. I'm not sure what's the more galling, referencing charges that Angus was cleared of as if the situation is analogous, calling Jim Flaherty as award-winning finance minister like he has an Oscar or something, calling the three month old cabinet "the strongest" in Canadian history (or maybe he was conflating biggest with strongest), or calling Harper the bestest prime minister in the whole wide world in open Parliament. I don't know, but I think Harper should be concerned that he's about to get Single White Femaled. 

And adding insult to injury, even some conservative commentators were left scratching their heads.

That was the most complete non-answer in the history of QP.
— Andrew Coyne (@acoyne) October 21, 2013

Tune in this afternoon to see if anyone in government has skill to match Calandra in today's edition of Non-sequitur (formally Question) Period.