Stephen Harper appointed five new Senators yesterday, including a former ADQ candidate from Quebec and a former Progressive Conservative MLA from Nova Scotia. Predictably the NDP are grumbling that Harper is *gasp!* fulfilling his constitutional duty. You know, one of the few that are actually spelled out in the written constitution.
Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney says that “Dutch Disease” is not a factor, and high resources prices are an “unambiguous good” for our economy. Economist Stephen Gordon provides some annotations on the speech here.
Canada has closed its embassy in Tehran, and is expelling Iranian diplomats from Canada.
Winslow Wheeler has high praise for the NDP’s Potemkin committee hearing on the F-35s, and was stunned that our Parliamentarians know what they’re talking about and aren’t surrounded by a staff of 50 who tell them what to do and say – unlike in the American Congress.
In the interests of “not punishing law-abiding gun owners,” the Conservatives are lifting regulations around gun shows that required advance approval from provincial firearms officers and making sponsors responsible for safety. You know, horribly onerous things with no identifiable reason or purpose.
Parks Canada is hoping to raise the profile of their mascot, Parka – a young female beaver – in order to help draw more youth to the country’s national parks.
The NDP remain on the defensive about the sovereignty question in Quebec, and try to come up with reasons why 50 percent plus one is good enough.
KPMG has been chosen to review the F-35 contract process, since apparently the Auditor General’s word isn’t good enough.
BC’s lawyers at the Northern Gateway pipeline review panel were shut down while trying to cross-examine Enbridge, especially on the topic of insurance.
Justin Trudeau was deployed to voice a unity-themed robo-call to people in Kitchener-Waterloo for their provincial by-election.
And Aaron Wherry exchanges emails with Joe Oliver’s office, and still comes no closer to determining how the old Conservative platform on cap-and-trade is just that, while the NDP’s proposals for cap-and-trade are a “carbon tax.”