Oh dear. It seems that despite initially denying the story, the Conservatives did eventually admit to being behind a push-poll in Saskatchewan designed to turn public opinion against the electoral boundaries changes – changes that will disadvantage the Conservatives as genuine urban ridings are carved out of the old distorting “rurban” ridings. Oh, but it was an “oversight” that they didn’t identify themselves. I’m sure the CRTC will be happy to hear that “guilty plea,” as Pierre Poilievre would term it, were this a Liberal mishap. But it’s not, so I’m sure their euphemisms will be equally creative.

The Environment Commissioner tabled his final report yesterday, which details frustrations with the pace of resource projects outstripping the capacity of regulatory agencies who are dealing with changing legislation, jurisdictional confusion, and not enough resources.

As the debate over EI reform rages on, economist Stephen Gordon explains the moral hazard principle when it comes to people gaming the system.

The Federal Court has ruled in favour of a US war deserter, sending the decision back to the IRB. Not that it can be assured that the outcome will be any different the next time around.

The Deputy Minister of HRSDC will be heading to committee to explain the loss of that student loan data.

Aaron Wherry parses MP Brent Rathgeber’s comments about the PBO being seen as too partisan, and compares his role to that of the Congressional Budget Officer in the States, whose role many Conservatives want Page to emulate. That desire, though, seems to stand in the way of the reality of the CBO and its work.

Senators Cowan and McCoy are both glad that Harper put the reference question to the Supreme Court, but both are concerned that Senate reform is being looked at in isolation, rather than in the broader Parliamentary context – which is a really big issue. These chambers and their roles don’t exist in isolation. Which is exactly what Senator Bert Brown is talking about as he claims that Harper is onboard for a constitutional amendment to ensure the supremacy of the Commons – based on a conversation at a steak house years ago. (Mind you it seems to me that Brown is getting increasingly desperate for some progress on his “reform” legacy, which is never going to be the Triple E reform he was so passionate about once upon a time).

Meanwhile, in a particularly egregious civic literacy failure, newbie MP Laurin Liu describes how she would “fix Parliament” – and yet can’t even identify her proper role as an MP. Liu seems to believe that MPs are just a focus group that provides input into legislation, rather than their actual role of holding the government to account by controlling the public purse. Oh, and apparently stopping the practice of time allocation and closure will fix everything. *headdesk* You know, civic literacy shouldn’t be that hard – especially for sitting MPs.

It seems that PEI doesn’t consider Senator Mike Duffy to be a resident in terms of taxation. Nor is he on the PEI voter’s list. Yeah, this really isn’t helping his case that it’s his primary residence.

Over in the Liberal leadership race, Deborah Coyne explains why she thinks that she should become leader despite not having a seat in the Commons.

Here are the three things that you need to see from last night’s political shows.

And Michael Den Tandt isn’t concerned about civility in the Commons, so long as the debate is intelligent. I heartily agree.