When the Bloc leader reaches for his heaviest artillery against the prime minister of Canada he threatens him with … a return to the House of Commons to a functioning federal Parliament.

HARD NOT TO SEE THE HUMOUR IN EXCHANGE BETWEEN TRUDEAU, BLANCHET

MR. BLANCHET, YOU ARE DOING OUR FEDERAL SYSTEM A GREAT SERVICE. — MURPHY

As long as we have Twain, Leacock and Wodehouse on our bookshelves there is no need to go to the news of the day for humour. Which is not to say that the latter does not come across with the occasional chuckle and, even once in a rare while, a real knee-slapper.

In these grim and monotonous times we need the balm of humour more than ever, and we will take it wherever it can be found. Those paying attention to federal politics lately, the Brady Bunch sittings, Justin Trudeau’s mundane soliloquies under the Tent of Commons, will have been rewarded with one of the most hilarious gags of this or any time.

As with any punch line, a little setup is required. YvesFrançois Blanchet, the separatist leader in our federal Parliament, appears to have grown a little testy with the Morning Briefer. A bit of a surprise since he and Mr. Trudeau seem to have been enjoying something of a concord up to now.

Blanchet’s obvious disinclination to have anything to do with Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, and his equally obvious “at-homeness” with Trudeau, is the Liberals’ security blanket. What else has allowed the Liberals to upend the venerable traditions of Parliament and go on a spending spree that isolates their administration as the Imelda Marcos of modern democracies?

The Bloc and the Liberals are in tacit alliance, Jagmeet Singh and his NDP are in political self-isolation, that much we know and that is all we need to know. But as said, as with every romance regardless of how quietly conducted, a little friction, what is often called a “tiff,” will arise. And Blanchet this week, after offering a laundry list of what he would like to see during the COVID interregnum, and noting some lapses, many lapses, in Trudeau’s professed commitments, hit out at his political amour.

This blossomed, as you will quickly agree, into the funniest exchange since Abbott and Costello debuted their hilarious “Who’s On First?” routine.

Now Blanchet, as leader of the Bloc and messiah of a broken Canada, is no friend of the Canadian Parliament. His sleep must be a playground of dreams for the day when Ottawa’s Parliament is no more; that, separatism triumphant, the Canada we have known for a century and a half, and the Parliament which has been its instrument and protector, are both shells of their former glory.

So what does he do, what arrow does he draw from his tactical quiver, to bring Trudeau to heel on the Bloc’s latest demands? What menace can he present to the prime minister, what scourge so fearful, that Trudeau must succumb to his, Blanchet’s, pleadings?

Well, (can the Sergeant-atArms do a drum roll, please) here it is:

“The Bloc Québécois is threatening to support a resumption of in-person sittings of the House of Commons five days a week if the Trudeau government doesn’t agree to a number of demands.”

I must pause. This is just too good. In the words (a few altered) of the super successful TV comedy, “This is Gold, Justin! Gold!”

Allow me to savour the comic high point: The Bloc, the separatist juggernaut, is “threatening” a resumption of the in-person sittings of the House of Commons. Gold, I tell ya.

There should be a special edition of Hansard, stand alone and printed on the highest quality embossed paper, to forever enshrine this declaration.

To review: when the Bloc leader reaches for his heaviest artillery against the prime minister of Canada he threatens him with … a return to the House of Commons, to a functioning federal Parliament.

A very famous Canadian, in his most famous utterance, once asked “Who speaks for Canada?” Well, in our topsy-turvy pandemic world, that would be M. Yves-François Blanchet, proud separatist and leader of the Bloc. And who is resisting this call for the operation of Canada’s House of Commons? That would be M. Justin Trudeau, federalist and prime minister of Canada. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is to politics as foie gras is to the palate, a relish so fine it almost evaporates as you sample it.

To what pass have we come when the buttress of Canadian politics, and most particularly the temple of its deliberations and debate, our House of Commons, is a separatist leader? And when those who refuse or decline some return to at least its partial function, with politicians present (do not say the House of Commons is a more dangerous venue than your neighbourhood Sobeys or the corner convenience store) are, successively, the Liberals, the NDP, and (naturally) the troika of Green MPs?

The nation’s grocery clerks have been “meeting” now for the duration of the pandemic. The chamber of the House of Commons is far larger than a lot of grocery stores. I haven’t got the stats before me but I believe grocery clerks are paid less than Canadian members of Parliament, and are considered (by some) to have less influence on how all the rest of us are governed.

They also manage to deliver financial updates (bill receipt) at time of actual expenditure, every day. Is it then appropriate to ask why (as I’m sure Blanchet has wondered) if the grocery clerks can do their work eight to 12 hours, in-person, every day, why members of Parliament (if only a fraction of them, and for half the hours, and far less exposure) cannot do the same?

I’m with the separatist. Mr. Blanchet, you are doing our federal system a great service.

Let’s take government out from under the front-yard tent and bring it back to the House of Commons.

ADRIAN WYLD / THE CANADIAN PRESS We need the balm of humour more than ever, Rex Murphy writes, and Justin Trudeau helped give us that recently.