On Tuesday, the Conservative MP for the Ontario riding of Oak Ridges —Markham sparked controversy by ducking an NDP question about Iraq with a non-sequitur about Israel. Calandra's response was widely mocked and led some pundits to wonder if question period serves any point at all any more.

Media upset with me, gee what am I to do? Tell you what, I will stand up for Israel who are on the front lines fighting terror every day.

On Wednesday, Calandra attempted to defend his question period performance on CBC's Power & Politics, sparking an epic facepalm from an NDP rival.

On Friday, Calandra tearfully apologized for his behaviour but conceded there will probably be other times he answers questions in a manner that upsets some of his colleagues.

"I don’t think this will be the last time that I’ll get up and answer a question that doesn’t effectively respond," he said.

As the prime minister’s parliamentary secretary, Calandra earns $16,300 on top of his base MP salary of $163,700 — good for $180,000 a year. His main responsibility, seemingly, is to field queries on behalf of the government during question period.

Last year, that meant responding to some tough questions about the Wright-Duffy affair and Senate expense scandal. But his answers – which often included insults hurled at rivals and personal anecdotes about his family life – spurred criticism he was wasting everyone's time. Though not exactly a household name, a website was created just to mock him.

Here are some of Calandra's more memorable quotes from the House.