FilibusterWatch: Don't start fluffing the parliamentary pillows yet, House pages...

With the government threatening to invoke closure on a bill to legislate an arbitrator-imposed end to the standoff at Canada Post, is the Commons Chamber fated to play host to the world's most partisan pyjama party on Thursday night?

Not necessarily.

Earlier today, the government gave notice that it intends to use the one remaining let's-get-on-with-it tool at its disposal: a motion of closure, or, in this case, a motion to bring closure on a de facto closure motion -- a near palindromic procedural trick that would instantly limit further debate on the motion -- which, of course, would impose a one-day deadline on the back to work legislation. (Why not just move closure on the bill, and skip the middle motion? Because one can only move closure on a matter on which debate has been adjourned at least once, that's why.)

Once moved, the standing orders prescribe just 30 minutes to debate such a motion, during which members "may put brief questions to the Minister responsible for the item subject to the motion of closure or to the Minister acting on his or her behalf." Factor in another 30 minutes for the bells, and the back-to-work bill could be ready for its second reading close-up by noon.

At that point, the battle will effectively be over, as the motion -- the original motion to limit debate, just to be clear* -- stipulates that all votes required to dispose of the matter be held before the House adjourns for the day -- and, in this instance, for the summer.

The opposition parties can, of course, keep the debate alive for as many hours as they can muster up members to speak on the bill -- through the night, and into the following day, even. Except that in this case, the following day is June 24 -- Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, AKA La Fête nationale du Québec, and one of the few statutory holidays that a Quebec politician -- especially a newly elected MP -- would be ill advised not to celebrate publicly.