While the issue of tariffs continues to dominate Question Period to the point of the absurd – witness yesterday’s eye-rollingly ridiculous “tax on fishing” questions – it should come as no surprise that these tariff changes are complicated. So complicated – and without any sense of coherence – that the professor who brought some of these changes to light suspects it was a way of raising revenue that’s so complex that most consumers won’t know why prices went up.
Access to Information documents reveal that a First Nations leader was forwarding Idle No More planning emails to the federal government as a means of keeping them in the loop, so that they wouldn’t do something stupid. These also included emails from Manitoba Grand Chief Derek Neepinak, who was planning on trips to Washington to garner support there.
The Federal Court has ruled that the federal government is in its rights to legislate away the immigration backlog, as they did as part of last year’s budget.
The government has virtually removed Environment Canada’s name from its own weather site – because they’re totally not being petty and small in their branding exercise or anything.
John Geddes takes a second look at Trudeau’s Boston comments and Harper’s swipe at them, and finds himself impressed by neither.
Oh, look – cap-and-trade is a shambles in Europe. So does this mean we’re back to talking about a genuine carbon tax? Maybe? Jean Charest thinks it’s time, for what it’s worth. Also worth noting – our emissions are dropping, except for Alberta’s oilpatch.
Oh dear – the Conservatives’ phone bank company for their voter identification and fundraising operations owes a million dollars in unpaid taxes.
The Speaker says that there’s no evidence that the Conservative caucus got a sneak peak at the new electoral reform bill, and thus ruled against a finding of privilege.
Senator Mike Duffy now admits that no, he hasn’t paid back those living expenses yet, and is now equivocating on whether or not he’s actually required to, and he’s going to wait for the results of the Deloitte audit before he sees if it’s really necessary, and all of that. So yeah, he’s really doing his part to bolster the image of the Senate.
Laura Stone has lunch with maverick backbencher Brent Rathgeber, who says that he will never utter the words “job-killing carbon tax” and says that the backbench “revolt” is not really against the leadership but against Parliamentary practice as it has evolved, and that it’s not disloyal to challenge the government’s decisions from time to time because that’s an MP’s job.
Michael Den Tandt muses about a Liberal Party that embraces classical liberalism, which would mean it might stand for something more than the populism the NDP and Conservatives are peddling for the sake of power.
And here are the three things you need to see from last night’s political shows, including the public sector integrity commissioner calling out an NDP MP for “misunderstanding or misrepresenting” his report during QP yesterday.