The 19th century British schoolteacher, social reformer and mathematician George Boole was not what you would call a 'market-oriented' kind of guy.

His life and work had little connection to the worlds of business and entrepreneurship, and the profit motive was almost entirely alien to his central preoccupations.

And yet, nearly 160 years after his death, Boole is viewed as one of the fathers of computer science -- the scientific foundation of the hugely profitable, multi-trillion dollar business of digital electronics.

Apple, Microsoft, Blackberry, IBM, Intel -- they all owe their existence to an obscure mathematician who died in 1864.

You can't get more market-oriented than that.

A lot happens in Parliament, aside from the theatre of Question Period and the now ritualized scrums that follow in the lobby of the House.

Some of it is sublime; some, ridiculous.

Some of it is enlightening; some, mind-numbing.

And most of it happens far from the gaze of the media or the public.

On April 25, for instance, the House Finance Committee heard from a number of expert witnesses on -- believe it or not -- the subject of inequality.

How and why -- in this time, and with the current Conservative Party in power -- a House of Commons committee decided to even talk about such a subject is a bit of a mystery.

It happened, however, and it was an exercise that might have merited a bit more attention.