It’s a curious thing, this notion of political expediency. When it comes to the issue of national security changes, for which you would think the government would want to take the time to get it right considering not only the Charter implications, but also the potential for major embarrassment to a government should things go wrong *cough*Maher Arar*cough* there should be an impetus for some due diligence. Instead, we’re getting word that they want to limit committee study to three days, because gods forbid that they might have to schedule a few extra committee meetings or sit into July to ensure that things happen. Meanwhile, on an issue such as doctor-assisted dying, where there is a ticking clock looming over them, the government instead prefers to push it off to the next parliament, insisting there’s “plenty of time” and don’t worry, they’re “consulting with Canadians” on the subject, which gives one the sense that they’re going to put pretty much as much effort as they did into the recent prostitution law, which is to say that it was a fairly sham process designed to give them a result that they could use to justify a solution that is unlikely to pass a second Charter challenge. Oh, and because they’ll be in a time crunch when they do get around to presenting a bill, it would allow them to insist that they need to use time allocation to ram though a bill without a lot of actual consultation with experts (assuming that the Conservatives form government again). This method of issues management makes no sense, but they apparently are under the impression that it works for them.

Good reads:

• The Estimates have been delivered, and Mark Kennedy has highlights! Let’s see how much of this actually makes it to Question Period. (I’m not holding my breath).
• Apparently the botched fighter jet replacement process is making Canada tougher to work with our allies.
• The numbers bear out that being diagnosed with a mental illness in the military is generally the first step toward ending your career, which makes more people reluctant to get help.
• What’s that? Doubling the contribution limit of Tax Free Savings Accounts will disproportionately help the wealthy? You don’t say! Kevin Milligan doubts the need to raise the limit.
• My column looks at why Michael Chong’s Reform Act is will end up damaging our democracy and should be defeated.

Odds and ends:

Glen McGregor writes his concerns over the Press Gallery bylaw changes.

The Liberals are set to oppose the Victims of Communism Memorial site.

There is talk that the NDP satellite offices issue could be forwarded to the police.