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When under fire, former Prime Minister Paul Martin’s go-to phrase was, “Let me be perfectly clear.”

His predecessor, Jean Chretien, frequently prefaced defensive statements with, “But for me…”

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Prime Minister Stephen Harper has a safe word, too, “obviously.”

Harper has been using the o-word to lower the temperature of hostile questions for years, but a not-all-that-scientific review of House of Commons records shows he has been leaning on the verbal tick more often the longer he’s prime minister.

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Instances of ‘obviously’ in this parliamentary session:

Stephen Harper – 151

Kevin Lamoureux – 46

Jeff Watson – 35

Paul Calandra – 34

Guy Caron – 32

Pierre Poilievre – 30

Jason Kenney – 29

Raymond Cote – 28

Peter Julian – 25

Murray Rankin – 24

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Since his Conservatives formed government in 2006, Harper has said “obviously” (or its French equivalent, “évidemment”) 456 times in the House of Commons, almost all in response to opposition queries in question period.