It’s Friday, and Stephen Harper is jetting off to Labrador to announce a loan guarantee for the Muskrat Falls hydro project – a project that embattled minister Peter Penashue has family ties with, which means he’s back to the Ethics and Conflict of Interest Commissioner’s office.
When Omnibus Budget Bill 2: The Revenge returns to the Commons, it’ll face between 26 and 47 votes on amendments put forward by the Greens. Kady O’Malley explains why the Speaker’s hands were tied when Scott Brison tried to point out the improper procedure employed in order to get some of his amendments back.
Over at the Natural Resources Committee, the Conservatives managed to work through the Liberal filibustering and have summoned David McGuinty and Justin Trudeau to appear before the committee to explain their “anti-Alberta” comments – not that McGuinty’s comments were anti-Alberta, and despite the fact that it offers both a platform to publicly denounce the job the government is doing in a public forum. But hey, it’s not like the committee has anything better to do than engage in a partisan witch-hunt.
General Tom Lawson appeared before National Defence committee yesterday and said that the F-35 is not the only plane that meets stealth requirements. What? Despite everything we’ve been told for the past three years? John Ivison hears that the KPMG audit into the F-35 costing process will drive a stake through the heart of that procurement process, and pave the way for another plane to be purchased instead.
Newly obtained court documents show that Elections Canada is looking into complaints about illegal robo-calling during the last election from across the country, not just a “rogue” or isolated incidence in Guelph.
New details into the Jeffrey Delisle spy case have been revealed. It seems that he might have been caught a year earlier if they had done the mandatory five-year review of his security clearance, and it’s not sure why they didn’t.
Here’s more about that “Maritime Union” idea of merging the three Maritime provinces that three Conservative senators are talking about – not that it’ll go anywhere. Paul Wells had lunch with PEI premier Robert Ghiz, who considers the proposal “preposterous.”
Economist Stephen Gordon wonders if Harper and Mark Carney were just lucky in how they got us out of the recession, of if they had the magic touch. It’s definitely a good read to put things into perspective.
Over in the Liberal leadership race, “tech guru” and hot republican mess George Takach is now officially in the running, and he wants gamers around the country to unite for him, to wiki new policy ideas, and provide more post-secondary and venture capital funds.
And here is your recap of last night’s political shows, talking about this tainted meat memo, the vote at the UN on Palestinian non-member state observer status, and the Jeffrey Delisle case.