In the lead up to Wednesday’s Council of the Federation meeting in Halifax, the premier of Nova Scotia discusses how he finds the federal government’s aloofness to be “troubling.” Meanwhile, environmentalists are hoping to engage the premiers at said meeting, given that the proposed national energy strategy will be one of the key topics discussed. A new Senate report will add fuel to the fire on the need for such a strategy.

In a not unrelated matter, it seems that BC Premier Christy Clark is starting to talk tougher on the Northern Gateway Pipeline, and sent out two of her ministers to outline her concerns. It seems like this is reverberating enough that Joe Oliver is starting to moderate his own tone a little. Alberta Premier Alison Redford, however, is none too happy with the objections.

Prime Minister Harper will be meeting with Toronto Mayor Rob Ford tomorrow in the wake of last week’s shooting incident. It sounds like it’s more of a photo op for Harper to tout all of the sentencing measures they’ve put into place – but considering that Ford wants banishment from the realm to be part of his powers, it may not be enough for him.

China’s state-owned CNOOC has made a $15 billion offer for Calgary oil company Nexen. Christian Paradis says his office will be reviewing the proposal. It also appears that Nexen officials met with CSIS in April to discuss “security issues,” which is curious.

Harper’s deputy chief of staff has taken a high-profile job in the private sector. Kady O’Malley looks at how this works out given the five-year “cooling off period” that he is supposed to be subjected to.

Here’s a look at Leona Aglukkaq’s record when it comes to taking the expert recommendations on food issues.

At the International AIDS Conference in Washington DC, AIDS doctors say that they have the tools to control the epidemic, but they need the political will to do so, which means things like ending the war on drugs.

It seems that Americans who show up at our borders with loaded handguns in their cars cite “cultural differences” as to why they’re armed. Here’s a look at the weapons seizures since 2006.

Strip club owners are starting to scour high schools to recruit new dancers, considering that the government is cracking down on getting temporary foreign workers or other immigrants to fill those roles. Hands up who didn’t see this happening.

And HSBC has some interesting cultural advice for doing business with Canadians as opposed to Americans. And some of the observations are pretty keen.