Newsflash: Jim Flaherty says he wants to keep his job as Finance Minister until the budget is balanced, which likely means spring of 2015, in advance of a new election. While it’s unlikely that Harper will shuffle him out before he does his promised major re-shuffle a little closer to the next election, there have been some questions as to how long Flaherty will be sticking around as he’s been looking pretty tired and acting downright cranky the past couple of months.
Peter Kent is patting himself on the back for cancelling a proposed shallow gas infill project in Alberta, despite the fact that this was a decision that took seven years. Even more laughably, Kent is claiming the Orwellian-named “Responsible Resource Development” legislation from earlier this year as the reason for the cancellation – despite, as we mentioned, the fact that this has been a seven-year process.
As the government and the military continue to back away from the F-35s, General Tom Lawson now says the term “Fifth-generation” is unhelpful. Or should I say Fifth Generation™, since it’s a trademarked marketing term and not an actual description of capabilities.
John Baird is “temporarily” pulling our diplomats from Israel and the West Bank, and our UN representatives in New York and Geneva as a protest/”consultation” in the wake of that UN vote on giving the Palestinians non-member observer state status.
In the wake of the new revelations on the security lapses in the Jeffrey Delisle spy case, critics are wondering why it took a tip from the FBI to start the investigation rather than any of the other triggers for investigation here in Canada that were overlooked.
There is a staff exodus taking place at the still unopened Canadian Human Rights Museum, citing political interference. And now you know why previous governments steered clear of this project, because they knew how volatile a proposition it was going to be.
Macleans.ca’s Science-ish takes 13 questions from leading scientists, health researchers, and health professionals and poses them to the health minister and the Liberal and NDP health critics.
Kady O’Malley takes us through the next batch of private members’ business soon to be arriving in the House – everything from a Bloc attempt to repeal the Clarity Act, a bill to give non-refundable tax credits for domestic travel, and an act to create Pope John Paul II Day in Canada.
Senator Joyce Fairbairn will retire from the Senate on January 18th. She has been on extended sick leave due to Alzheimer’s-related dementia, after a long and impressive career of shattering glass ceilings.
And it’s official – Bob Rae is the most talkative MP in the Foyer scrums after QP every day. Not that it’s a surprise. He’s also completely unscripted, unlike the vast majority of MPs, for what it’s worth.
PS – There is no political show recap today, thanks to a five-hour cable and Internet outage last night.