XPost: can.politics, ont.politics, bc.politics   
   From: "@nyet.ca   
      
   By The Canadian Press - May 15, 2014   
      
      
   Five things to know about the Commons hearing into NDP satellite offices   
      
      
   OTTAWA - Five things to know about the House of Commons committee   
   investigation into the operations of the NDP's satellite offices, and   
   leader Tom Mulcair's unprecedented two hours of testimony Thursday:   
      
   1. If the Conservatives and Liberals hoped to goad Mulcair into an   
   angry, televised meltdown, they were disappointed. Mulcair, who is known   
   to have a temper, was the picture of sweet reason through two hours of   
   questioning.   
      
   2. Mulcair did his best to turn the tables on his opponents, suggesting   
   the Conservatives and their Liberal "henchmen" were going after the NDP   
   because they fear losing the next election.   
      
   3. The Conservatives avoided the scatter-gun approach usually seen at   
   committee hearings, where different MPs often take questioning off on a   
   tangent. They left Kitchener MP Stephen Woodworth, a veteran lawyer, to   
   pose all their questions.   
      
   4. The NDP set up a satellite office in Montreal in the fall of 2011,   
   after the election brought them a raft of young, rookie MPs. The idea   
   was to help the newcomers. It later set up two more offices in Quebec   
   City and Toronto and had been planning another in Saskatchewan, where   
   the party has no MPs.   
      
   5. Mulcair agreed the salaries for the 14 employees at the satellite   
   offices were paid by New Democrat MPs, who pooled their House of Commons   
   budgets. But he insisted they dealt with parliamentary work and were   
   kept segregated from party workers who handled partisan chores.   
      
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