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After a three-month hiatus, the House of Commons is set to get back down to parliamentary business today.

But when the Chamber curtains rise on the first question period of the season later this afternoon, one front-bench seat will be conspicuously vacant, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has elected to skip the first two days of the fall sitting in favour of making the rounds at the opening of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

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According to the itinerary provided by his office, Trudeau will start his day by conducting a closed-door confab with Queen Rania Abdullah, with whom he’s also scheduled to co-chair a roundtable on “international cooperation and action on refugees and migrants.”

Later this afternoon, Trudeau will give the keynote speech at the Global Compact Luncheon before making his way to the New York headquarters of Buzzfeed News for a live interview.

Back in the capital, a quick glance at the House to-do list for the first day back lays out a distinctly low-key start to the sitting, at least as far as the legislative agenda.