First things first

Meanwhile, for those wondering what the NDP has been up to in its first summer as Official Opposition, the Hill Times has part of the answer:

(W)ith so many new and young MPs, the question begs asking about whether or not this year's summer caucus meeting will include an extra dose of training for the rookie NDP MPs.

According to Ms. Turmel, more training will "probably not" happen at the caucus meeting. This decision likely is a result of the fact that the NDP, according to Ms. Turmel, has been training their new MPs all summer.

"The whole summer they are having training once a week or twice a week, depending on the subject...it's regular for the new staff, they had a meeting last week on how to reach out in the riding...it's a variety of subjects," said Ms. Turmel.

Ms. Turmel said the training sessions are run by the party and mostly have taken place at the party's national headquarters on Queen Street in Ottawa.

Which nicely signals that the already-overstated questions about the NDP caucus' experience should be a thing of the past by this fall. And that should position the NDP nicely to put its numbers in Parliament to the best possible use.