Economist Stephen Gordon has taken a second look at the budget, and declares that with higher tariffs on more countries, and tighter restrictions on foreign investment in Canada, the government is really more anti-trade than it lets on. He also calls out the logic about how the “preferential tariff” was some kind of a subsidy if its elimination means Canadian taxpayers end up paying more. Over in Hong Kong, Jim Flaherty says that the issue of the increased tariffs have not yet been raised, but closer to home, his plan to return to the issue of a single national securities regulator is still not getting a lot of traction from the more recalcitrant provinces. The NDP, meanwhile, have decided to call in the RCMP about the budget “leaks” that appeared in the media in the lead-up as part of the government communications strategy.

In other budget news, John Geddes gets to the bottom of the mysterious $4 billion cut expected from next year’s bottom line, and finds it’s not really a cut, but that there were additional one-time expenses in this year’s books that won’t need to be there next year, and it doesn’t signal a fresh round of austerity measures.

Here’s a look at Natural Resources Canada’s advertising budget, and their need to “correct falsehoods” with regards to their pipeline proposals.

Keith Ashfield staged a photo op last Friday, and then complemented one of his hosts by telling her that she’d make someone a wonderful wife one day. …And cue the accusations of sexist remarks, which Ashfield insists were all just being taken out of context (but not really). Yeah, even in his own caucus he’s not exactly popular right now.

The Speaker has raised concerns that Thomas Mulcair’s bill on the PBO, plus another NDP bill on exempting pre-paid funeral arrangements when calculating income supplements, are both likely to require a royal recommendation, and thus are not eligible to be passed as Private Members’ Bills, lest the government provide it (which they won’t). You would have thought that Mulcair would have thought that through before he tabled said bill (however hastily). And yet apparently not.

Speaking of Private Members’ Business, Mark Warawa is appealing the decision to make his motion on sex-selective abortions non-voteable.

More Order Paper questions look into just how much it’s costing the taxpayer for Jason Kenney and his former staffer to defend against a libel suit by George Galloway.

The Prime Minister has appointed Scott Tannas to the Senate to replace Bert Brown, based on Tannas having won a spot based on the last senate “election.” That makes three of the six senators for that province as “elected,” which is going to start being a problem soon if they decide to start throwing their weight around based on any perceived “democratic legitimacy.” Meanwhile, Liberal senator Mac Harb is going to wait for the results of the audit before he decides whether or not to repay those questionable living expenses.

In the Labrador by-election, the former Liberal MP Todd Russell has declined to run again, but did air that he wasn’t pleased that Yvonne Jones immediately declared her candidacy for the nomination. Of course, the NDP ran some rather ridiculous talking points about how the “Liberals were divided,” as though an open nomination wasn’t par for the course in politics.

There is of course a very sly bit of complication with the Labrador by-election, which has to do with the investigation by Elections Canada. While everyone is concerned that the by-election is likely to run before that investigation is completed, what the linked article fails to mention is that if Penashue happens to win the by-election and the investigation later proves conclusively that he was in the wrong, it becomes easier for the Conservatives to say that the voters, knowing that he already took responsibility and did the right thing to resign, re-elected him anyway, well it shows that he should be absolved because the voters are always right, and so on. So yes, it does get pretty complicated.

Here are the three things you need to see from last night’s political shows, including a lengthy discussion on First Nations issues that was not entirely black and white.

And we got pandas. Woo! Distraction sauce!