Western premiers continue to strike back at Thomas Mulcair, refuting his assertion that they are simply “Harper’s messengers,” while he sticks to his guns on the “Dutch disease” diagnosis, calling it “irrefutable.” Erm, except more economic data shows that it’s not. An IRPP study shows that while there may have been a mild case of said “disease,” it’s a far more complex picture than simply Alberta versus Ontario’s manufacturing sector, as the decline in the manufacturing sector has more to do with the rise of China than it does with the strength of our dollar, which has in turn helped other sectors of the economy as well. Meanwhile, Statistics Canada reports that the manufacturing sector is rebounding. Not that we should expect Mulcair to back down from his position anytime soon.

It seems that the F-35s were built with no cybersecurity protections in them, making them as vulnerable to cyberattacks as Humvees were to roadside bombs, apparently. But these are still the best aircraft that our airmen and women need, remember! Meanwhile, the government sent the RCMP on a five-month probe into what they thought might have been leaked documents after a Globe and Mail story on the F-35s, which turned out to be nothing. Well, nothing but a warning that if the government doesn’t like what the media is reporting, they’ll read too much power into certain National Security Acts that don’t really apply and send the RCMP after them.

As was brought up in Tuesday’s QP, here’s a bit more about how job notices for positions like chair of the CBC or the National Gallery now have a line about developing and maintaining an “effective relationship” with the minister and his staff.

The government’s response to the UN Special Rapporteur for Food’s report is to go off on a tangent about anti-seal hunt activists. Because there’s nothing like the power of distraction when there’s a message they don’t want to hear.

What’s that? Everything John Baird said in QP the other day about NRTEE was entirely fictional, and that they haven’t produced ten reports calling for a carbon tax, and in fact haven’t called for a carbon tax at all? You don’t say!

Elizabeth May blogs about her experience at Committee of the Whole on Tuesday night, and offers several corrections to what Peter Kent said.

In the event you’ve lost the plot on all of the robocall/”Pierre Poutine” revelations, Laura Payton has you covered. Meanwhile, the Conservatives are trying to get those court challenges of those six ridings thrown out.

Here’s an interesting argument against Senate reform that centres around the economic interests of west versus east that would be upset in an empowered Upper Chamber eager to flex its muscles.

And the NDP’s first budget “town hall” meeting turned into something of an echo chamber. Hands up who didn’t see that coming.