EVERYTHING FEELS BROKEN — The West Block cafeteria's cookie stash is especially tempting this week for sweet-toothed Hill people.
Daylight is elusive. Slush is annoying. The entrenched dysfunction on the House floor is a lot. Time for a sugar hit. A chocolate chip cookie is a relatively inflation-proof steal at C$1.42. — A very specific finger: Most disagreements in the House these days mix a cocktail of pettiness and procedure. Everything seems hard to explain in 30 seconds or less. Take Wednesday, when Conservative House Leader ANDREW SCHEER intended to introduce a unanimous consent motion to extend the fall sitting by a single day to debate Finance Minister CHRYSTIA FREELAND's Fall Economic Statement. → Time check: The House is set to rise Dec. 17 at the latest. It was no secret Scheer would propose an extended sitting, and he was barely a few words into his motion when the Liberals shouted him down. Conservative MP SCOTT REID grew visibly heated, shouting right back and capping the outburst with a flash of his middle finger. It looked cathartic. Shortly thereafter, Liberal point-man for House procedure KEVIN LAMOUREUX attempted his own point of order. Conservatives even more loudly shouted their disapproval. Liberals complained that Reid gave an eff you to the government. Reid stood to clarify that he was directing the gesture specifically at Liberal MP MARK GERRETSEN — and then promptly withdrew it before strolling out of the chamber. Yeah, it was that kind of day following the last Wednesday question period of the fall, when Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU fields all the questions. For the record, the daily session ran over time — a lack of clock discipline that is by now routine in the chamber amid constant disruptions. — What legislative agenda? As the House emptied following the mid-afternoon commotion, MPs returned to the months-old privilege motion debate that has come to define the autumn sitting. It's dawning on the fishbowl that a debate over a defunct green technology fund caught up in a conflict-of-interest scandal is now woven into the fabric of House business. A week of debate stretched into two, and then three, and then a month, and then two, and it's unclear if or when the Liberals will be able to permanently end it. — Break time is over: For a few days this week, a speaker-enforced string of opposition day motions and votes, as well as House approval of spending estimates, granted a reprieve. But with a week left before an extended recess, it's back to new normal. → Still on the agenda: Technically, government business is waiting in the wings. C-71, which amends citizenship rules. C-66, which reforms the military justice system. Don't forget a motion, lying fallow, meant to enact changes to capital gains tax rules. — When will it all end? The holidays are no sure cure for the stalemate. There's little chatter of prorogation, and nothing at all about a snap election call. But those blunt tools increasingly look like the only way out of a neverending story reminiscent of that fictional weatherman in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. PUBLIC ACCOUNTS — Meanwhile, the government is running out of time in 2024 to publish the annual Public Accounts of Canada, a detailed accounting of federal spending often unveiled earlier in the fall. Here are the dates in recent years: — 2023: Oct. 24 — 2022: Oct. 22 — 2021: Dec. 14 — 2020: Nov. 30 — 2019: Dec. 12 — 2018: Oct. 19 → Countdown to New Year’s Eve: 19 days. | 
