Last year, when President Obama stood before the Republican House caucus on his own in an unscripted, hostile environment, the calls for a parliamentary style question period to be adopted in the American system were quite loud, if not taken quite so seriously.  However, after some discussion among the blogosphere and the major media outlets they came to the same conclusion those of us living in systems that have such questions periods.  It's incredibly easy to dodge questions.

Such is the case in Canada when questions of policy get broken down into sound bites and catch phrases during question period and  various political radio and television ads.  But we already know that is nothing new, that it's something everyone expects and is fairly used to depending on how closely you follow the national debate, at least in Canada.  This is the realm of talking points, where members of parliament and their staff test to see which lines of attack work and which don't.  Although, there is something to be said from what you can learn from a non answer depending on the circumstances.

Despite all that, it is a time honoured tradition of mild frustration and fun I suppose.  One which saw Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff continue yesterday's assault on the competence of the ruling Tories.  He challenged Prime Minister Stephen Harper on the loss of the U.N. Security Council seat, the record deficit, and billions in proposed spending on prisons and jets.  As is usual when it comes to question period, the Prime Minister (as they all do) stuck to the talking points, praising their own integrity while disavowing any and all responsibility for the government's latest failures. 

It should be interesting to see if any of these issues sticks in the what I've guessed would be a spring election campaign.

Watch the remarks between leaders below: