It has been a busy 24 hours at the Ottawa airport as MPs head home for a week break leading up to Remembrance Day. Some seemed as though they just couldn't wait to get out of Dodge, er, Ottawa.

MPs have only been back on the Hill for three weeks after a very long summer break — it was almost four months in fact. But it's been a long three weeks for the Liberals. One joked that this week couldn't end fast enough.

On Monday, when the finance minister stood up and announced that he would be delivering his economic update on Tuesday after the markets closed, the Liberals knew something was coming that would likely make them squirm.

They were right. The update, which was more like a mini-budget, found them once again denouncing something they wouldn't have the political courage to vote against — the one per centage point cut in the GST.

In the midst of that came the further embarrassment of one of their own defying the leader and vowing to vote against the GST cut while everyone else abstained.

In the end, however, Ottawa Vanier MP Mauril Belanger chose to leave the chamber rather than vote against his leader's wishes. But the entire episode had many Liberals very anxious to get away from Parliament Hill to the relative safety of home.

Of course, home means back to the riding to mark Remembrance Day and to talk to constituents about everything that is going on in Ottawa these days.

Sigh. You can take the MP out of Ottawa but …

The House of Commons will be back in business on Nov. 13th.