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Politicians and staff wait for the all-clear to return to Parliament after a fire alarm sounded on Nov. 19, 2010.

Another day, another fire alarm on Parliament Hill.

Politicians, staff, and a few grumpy reporters filed out of the Centre Block on Friday during the morning Question Period. It was the second time this week that fire trucks, their lights flashing, have been positioned in front of the Peace Tower.

Karl Belanger, the senior press secretary for Jack Layton, was quick to fire up his Twitter account. "Fire Alarm in Centre Block. Evacuated. Now Looking out for stupid hats," he said.

Mr. Belanger was, of course, making reference to the "Fly Emirates" baseball cap sported by Defence Minister Peter MacKay after the same building was cleared after an alarm sounded on Wednesday.

During that evacuation, Mr. MacKay started a conversation with Astral Radio's Hill bureau chief Daniel Proussalidis, who was chatting with Senator Michael Meighen and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.

According to Mr. Proussalidis, the Defence Minister said a cabinet decision on airline landing rights had set relations with a key Arab ally back by a decade.

On Thursday, Mr. MacKay did not deny the conversation when speaking to reporters at the Ottawa airport, where he was departing for Portugal to attend a NATO summit. "We have some work to do in repairing the relationship with the United Arab Emirates," the Defence Minister said. "... Clearly the circumstances under which we left the base require, now, some work."

The Canadian military was kicked out of the secret air force base in Dubai that had been used to supply the mission in Afghanistan when the UAE could not secure more landing rights in Canada for Emirates Airlines and another state carrier.

Mr. MacKay's comments seemed to be a deliberate attempt to signal he does not agree with the Canadian government's actions on that particular file. He was not on hand to engage in similar banter Friday. And cabinet ministers who were left behind have no doubt been told to keep their mouths shut when the fire alarms sound.

Of course, sometimes fire evacuations have worked in the government's favour.

A similar alarm went off in May just before Dimitri Soudas, the Prime Minister's director of communication, was to appear at the Commons ethics committee to discuss the government's handling of access-to-information requests.

That allowed Mr. Soudas to escape his moment in the hot seat. And the government declared shortly after that Conservative staffers would not longer appear when summoned to testify before parliamentary committees.

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