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No Stephen Harper. No Michael Ignatieff. NDP Leader Jack Layton was out with a cold. No Industry Minister Tony Clement. Stockwell Day, the Trade Minister, wasn’t there either. No Finance Minister Jim Flaherty. No Environment Minister Jim Prentice, who is in Denmark for a pre-climate change meeting. No Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon, who is with the Prime Minister and Mr. Day in India.

Given the big gaps on the front bench, you can appreciate that Question Period was a tame affair today – as the few government ministers who were there and the respective parliamentary secretaries handled questions mostly on the distribution of the H1N1 vaccine, the controversial HST and the upcoming climate change summit in Copenhagen.

Leading off for the Liberals was their health critic Carolyn Bennett, who was critical of Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq and her previous claims that every Canadian who wanted the H1N1 vaccine would receive it before Christmas. The Liberals are saying now that vaccination distribution will run into next February.

“Why did the minister mislead the House and why did she not tell Canadians the truth?” Ms. Bennett charged.

The minister said they were ahead of schedule. She didn’t answer the question about timing. Instead, she noted that by the end of the week 10.4 million vaccines will have been distributed across the country.

Next up: The Bloc. Leader Gilles Duceppe accused the government of trying to sabotage the Copenhagen conference after reports yesterday said there will be no binding deal on greenhouse gas emissions coming out of next month’s summit.

The environment news came out of the APEC summit in Singapore, which Mr. Harper and other world leaders were attending.

The NDP also raised concerns about Copehagen. Deputy leader Thomas Mulcair, who served at one time as environment minister in Quebec, charged that the Tories are trying to undermine the outcome of the conference.

Tory MP Mark Warawa, the parliamentary secretary to the Environment Minister, said that the government will not sign any deal that is bad for the country.

“The fact is the government has made it very clear that Canada wants an international binding treaty that includes all the major emitters,” he said. “This government will ensure that any treaty will include Canada’s economic, geographic and industrial realities.”

Oh and there was a question on the HST. The controversial tax played a role in last week’s by-election in British Columbia where the NDP held on to their seat.

The NDP’s Chris Charlton, a Hamilton MP, said that the Ontario government is joining with the Harper government to “gouge” Ontarians. The new tax is to come into effect next July.

The parliamentary secretary to the Finance Minister, Ted Menzies, accused Ms. Charlton of using “harsh language” and being a hypocrite in pretending to “protect citizens against taxes when they [the NDP] have in fact voted against every tax cut that we have put forward in the House, including such an emotional issue as guide dogs for the blind.”

Fun.

Meanwhile, the best question of the day – for imagery – goes to NDP health critic Judy Wasylycia-Leis on the appointment of a Pfizer vice-president, Dr. Bernard Prigent, to the governing council of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

“Having drug companies advise the government is like having the big bad wolf advising the three little pigs on how to build their homes. Does the Health Minister have the common sense to see this as a huge conflict of interest and reverse the appointment.”

Ms. Aglukkaq said she will review the matter.

(Photo: Chris Wattie/Reuters)