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OTTAWA—The Peace Tower clock is ringing 8 a.m. and Parliament Hill is just starting to stir as Conservative strategists gather in a Centre Block office.
Question period is still hours away but the political aides are already plotting strategy — what questions to ask and what Conservative MP will ask them. A white board hanging on the wall has 24 empty slots — one for each question they’re allotted and each a chance for their MPs to land a punch on Justin Trudeau’s Liberals.
“It really is to hold the government to account. More often than not, what gets put up on the board there is what people have heard in their ridings,” said Alberta MP Chris Warkentin, the party’s deputy house leader.
It’s the day after the Liberal government announced plans to buy the Trans Mountain pipeline project for $4.5 billion and the Conservatives plan to go hard on the topic.
But how?
“I think we need a discussion about the questions on the pipeline,” Warkentin says to the assembled group.
“It’s not one inch of new pipeline. The protesters are still out there. The lawsuits are still there. Nothing has changed,” he says, kicking off talk on the topic.
Other topics come rapid fire — the state of NAFTA negotiations, the threat of a CP Rail strike and Toronto’s demand for federal funding to assist with an influx of refugee claimants. One-by-one, the slots on the white board get filled in with topics and the names of the MPs who will ask the questions.
The meeting is over by 8:30 a.m. and the topics farmed out to the respective MPs to craft their question. “That’s our Wednesday,” declares one aide.
For politicians and their aides, question period is the 45-minute event that consumes much of a day.
For each scripted question and rote answer, there are hours of preparation. And yes, there are even rehearsals as MPs and cabinet ministers practice with colleagues and aides who help hone their moment in the Commons’ spotlight.
Preparations start early for all the parties. Anthony Salloum, an assistant to NDP House Leader Ruth Ellen Brosseau, and Sarah Andews, until recently the NDP’s deputy director of communications, huddle with other members of the party’s communications team.
Throughout the previous day and into the evening, MPs and staff have emailed suggested questions. Now the work begins to whittle the list down to the 11 questions allotted to the New Democrats.
“It’s really, really hard,” Salloum says.
Opposition parties look to craft questions that focus on the issues of the day, highlight a government controversy, drive home their own positions on a topic or put a constituency issue in the spotlight.
Deciding who asks the question is another part of the puzzle as parties try to balance gender, language, geographic considerations and MP critic roles — and even which politicians are in town that day.
Some issues are well-worn and the government’s answers predictable. Opposition parties will look at how cabinet ministers have responded in the past in hopes of finding a fresh angle to knock government politicians off their speaking notes. But it can be hard, says Brosseau, who helps oversee the NDP’s question period planning.
“We can mouth the responses — the economy and the environment go hand-in-hand,” she said, rhyming off one of the Liberals’ oft-used speaking lines.
“It’s really frustrating,” she said.
Adds Salloum, “the issue isn’t that they lie to us. It’s that they don’t answer the questions.”
On the Liberal side, officials in the offices of the whip and government house leader have also been meeting, gathering before 9 a.m. to talk about the day ahead, including the legislative schedule and question period.
For the Liberals, it’s mostly about playing defence, crafting responses to questions they expect to get. They get a few lob balls too, questions from their own MPs which they use to highlight government initiatives.
At 1:15 p.m., cabinet ministers convene in the cabinet room in Centre Block for a dress rehearsal. They have already spent 45 minutes with their own staff going over issues of the day and readying themselves for the expected questions. This session, lasting about 30 minutes and chaired by Government House Leader Bardish Chagger, is a final chance to polish responses and get up to speed on any last-minute issues.
“You get asked mock questions. When you offer an answer, people opine on how to improve the response,” said one Liberal MP who has taken part.
Conservative and NDP MPs also rehearse their questions, tweaking the wording to fit the allotted time.
By 2 p.m., MPs are making their way to the Commons. Ministers lug a binder of cheat notes, known as QP cards, that hold scripted answers to a host of possible topics.
The best performers are the MPs who can think on their feet like a good courtroom lawyer. The New Democrats have even gone into Commons chamber after hours — when the business of the day is done — to practise the art of asking a question.
But it’s complicated by the fact that MPs have just 35 seconds for their questions and answers. “That’s why so many literally read the question because they are so scared to get cut off,” Salloum said.
NDP MP Charlie Angus, of the NDP is one of those MPs who makes it look easy. “Every day I have a question, I practise and practise and practise to get a fluidity,” he said.
“I worked really long not to have a piece of paper in front of me. When you read, it doesn’t sound real. I think you have to learn to speak in your own voice,” Angus said.
As the leader of the Official Opposition, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer gets the first question. By convention the prime minister responds to the questions from opposition party leaders.
The Liberals vowed in the 2015 election to introduce prime minister’s question period to improve “accountability.” While it has not been formally introduced, Trudeau has taken to answering all questions on Wednesdays. By early June, there had been 23 so-called prime minister’s question periods and Trudeau had responded to 891 questions in all.
Opposition MPs complain that Trudeau too often sidesteps the questions but Liberals say the prime minister deserves credit for taking on whatever opposition MPs toss at him.
“When you look at the number of questions he has answered, it’s impressive,” Chagger said.
Presiding over it all is the Speaker of the House, Geoff Regan, a Liberal MP. He polices behaviour to make sure ever-simmering partisan tensions don’t boil over. Of all the Speaker’s duties, this is among the most “onerous and difficult,” according to the Commons’ procedures guide.
Like his predecessors, Regan relies on understated “tut-tuts” and repeated calls to order to keep behaviour in check. But he’s not shy about calling out individual MPs who repeatedly interrupt proceedings.
The week typically starts slow on Mondays and builds to a partisan climax on Wednesday, when MPs arrive in question period fired up by the morning caucus meetings. Fridays typically play out in a half-empty chamber as many MPs have already returned to their ridings for the weekend.
It’s different watching question period in person. First-time visitors are often surprised by the noise — the cheering, heckling and applause that at times can drown out the MP who is speaking. “It’s very different on the floor than it is on TV. It’s a lot louder,” Chagger said.
It takes effort not to get thrown off by the noise and heckling. And cabinet ministers try not to get knocked off script. “If you stay focused on the Speaker, then you are able to kind of tune out anything. It can be hard though,” Chagger said.
The sometimes bored indifference of backbench MPs is also eye-opening. Many pass the time on their iPads and smartphones or tending to paperwork, such as signing stacks of greeting cards in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
Chagger concedes there’s work to be done to ensure that Canadians see the work in the Commons as “relevant” to them.
“I would hope Canadians watch question period. I would hope we give them more of a reason to watch question period. I do believe it’s a part of the history of this institution and it can really serve to benefit Canadians,” she said.
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