It was the exchange that launched a thousand face palms: NDP leader Tom Mulcair questioning Conservative MP Paul Calandra last week on the government's plan for Canada in Iraq. Calandra continually evaded the questions and responded with a non-sequiturial criticism of the NDP's position on Israel - over and over again.
It was awful, it was embarrassing, it made a mockery of respectful debate among adults at the highest level of power in Canada.
Dealing with non-answers is a common frustration for journalists, which only partially explains why Calandra is getting scorched by the media. Regular folks are also finding the now-infamous Mulcair-Calandra exchange annoying as a video of the incident makes the rounds on social media.
Calandra delivered a tearful apology in the House last Friday, and CBC reported that a senior staffer in the Prime Minister's Office put him up to the non-answers. (Make no mistake, his apology was likely scripted by senior bureaucrats as well.)
However, the authenticity of an apology is measured by action. You can cry all you want and you can say sorry, but are you willing to change your behaviour?
The Conservatives have a chance to do just that, thanks to an NDP motion that would give the speaker more power to stop irrelevant questions and answers during question period.
The vote is tonight (Tuesday), and even as this is being posted, Burnaby-New Westminster MP Peter Julian is trying to get a minimum of 12 Tories to support the motion to get it passed.
When the NOW spoke with Julian earlier, he had one. The speaker already has the power to quash irrelevancy in other areas of the house - it's just question period where this silliness still happens. If Calandra is truly sorry for his performance in the house, we expect him to not only support the motion but lobby his fellow Tories to back it. Otherwise, his apology is just more empty theatrics.
