I agree, that's poor practice and should not be permitted. In democracies the government is supposed to be answerable to the people. I suppose they would claim that to answer would reveal secret information, though that is too often used to cover up incompetence or outright wrongdoing.
I think by that time members of the Harper inner circle had come to the point where they no longer felt accountable to anyone, they certainly acted that way. Until October rolled around and we kicked them out of power. The questions in the House were pretty basic, how long did our government intend to have Canadians involved in a very bloody war.
Incompetence and wrongdoing became - or always were - the core of the Harper government, as I think it does in any authoritarian government.
Order, order, order... order, order... I must insist... order, order... that the honorable gentleman... order, order, order... orderrr... in the name of propriety and all that is decent... order... simply choose another word... order, order... (the word beginning with "a" and ending with "n"), order, order, order... to describe the former government. Order...
It got completely silly, the conservative government MP who was tasked with dealing with Question Period in the House began answering legitimate and serious question about how the country was being run with talking about how he liked flowers and his daughters lemonade stand among other things.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/conservative-mp-makes-tearful-apology-to-ndp-leader/article20802034/
It wasn’t the first time Calandra has responded in the House with non sequiturs, raising questions about whether he will stick to his Friday pledge to never again deliver a pointless response.
Last October, when asked about the Senate expenses scandal, he replied: “I do like flowers and, of course, with lemons I like to make lemonade.
“My two daughters, this summer, actually had a lemonade stand where they sold lemonade for five cents on the street. They did very well. I am very proud of them."
As I said when he did the same thing about how long and how deep the conservative government was going to involve Canada in the war against ISIS then I think most Canadians had had enough. We really already have one Queen, we don't need someone else acting like one in Ottawa.