The government has indicated they will be extending the consideration of the Nexen deal by another 30 days – though this is a fairly common occurrence. Expect the renewed calls for “public consultations” to begin when the House returns on Monday.

Apparently the federal government has been studying ways to change the provincial equalisation programme. Changes to things like the way hydro revenues are calculated could have a major impact on the equalisation that Quebec receives.

Not only have the Conservatives ramped up their advertising spending in an age of fiscal austerity, it seems that over the past five years, they’ve exceeded said advertising budgets by 37 percent. Fiscal discipline, everybody!

What’s that? A huge spike in self-harm and suicide attempts in prisons that are overcrowded and suffering from an increase in violence and gang membership? You don’t say!

In a rare bit of federal-provincial cooperation, there is a new agreement on air quality regulations to cut smog.

There are contract renegotiations taking place for our replacements for the Sea King helicopters, which are now five years overdue. It seems to me that given the penalties under the old contract, we should be getting these for free by now. Since that’s not going to happen, we’ll have to see what this new contract says. (Note: We’re not entirely blameless in all of this, since the military took an “off-the-shelf” model and started adding all kinds of goodies to it, which drove up the price and delivery timelines. Former Auditor General Sheila Fraser slammed the procurement process for this deal – which apparently we haven’t learned from, given the continuing parade of military procurement disasters we’re in the midst of).

A former Nortel executive says that we shouldn’t trust Huawei, and claims that they spent ten years hacking Nortel’s systems.

The former Bank of Canada Governor, David Dodge, says we should build an east-west pipeline to help address economic imbalances in the country’s regions. Joe Oliver says that’s great – so long as the government doesn’t have to pay for it.

While we continue to wait for the Etobicoke-Centre Supreme Court decision, here is the tale of Borys Wrzesnewskyj smuggling photocopiers into the collapsing Soviet Union.

The huge Maclean’s interview with Justin Trudeau is now online. Martha Hall Findlay – whose old leadership debt is now down to $18,000 – says she’s not scared off by Trudeau’s entry into the race. She would be one of seven other potential challengers aside from Trudeau.

Here is your recap of the politics shows last night.

And Peter O’Neil notes Senator Martin’s strange reluctance to speak to the media, despite her appointment on the promise of being a “stronger voice” for BC.