The Conservative Party is apoplectic with outrage after Elections Canada didn’t put punitive sanctions against those 2006 Liberal leadership candidates who still haven’t repaid their debts. The problem, Elections Canada says, is that the rules aren’t actually enforceable. And guess whose fault that is? The Conservatives, along with the NDP, who were in such a rush to punish the Liberals in 2006 that they passed a really flawed series of changes that made a dog’s breakfast of leadership campaign finance rules. About the most they did was make the ability to fundraise so restrictive that these former candidates with outstanding debts can’t raise that money. So really, well done all around.

Paul Wells parses the Obama NYT interview referencing Keystone XL, and the clanging yellow alarms that it signals, and yet which the Harper PMO seems oblivious to. Luiza Ch. Savage notes some of the context in which Obama has been making these comments – just as he makes another derisive reference as to how many jobs the pipeline would really create.

Ruh-roh! The government may have to find some new talking points as our slow growth may no longer be leading the G7 economies.

While this has been discussed for a while now, Public Works has confirmed that the Senate Chamber and the 21 associated offices in the Centre Block will move to the Government Conference Centre in 2018 for about ten years while the Centre Block undergoes renovations. This means that they won’t be glassing in the East Block courtyard, as had been a possibility (which is good, because it’s a gorgeous space), and that it will speed up that segment of the rehabilitation process by about two years.

The Canadian Medical Association has released a report looking at the social determinants of health, with poverty being a large focus.

There are concerns that the foreign service visa strike will adversely affect the International Children’s Games taking place in southwestern Ontario next month.

John Baird denies that he sent his RSVP to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka later in the year, given the concerns over that country’s human rights record.

Lockheed Martin says that a new deal it has signed with the Pentagon means that the F-35 price tag will start to fall – not that we in Canada have decided that this will be the replacement for the CF-18s.

Senator Mac Harb took out a $55,000 loan against his Ottawa condo, likely for the repayment of those Senate expenses that he made “under protest,” and which he is challenging in court.

In speaking about his decision to not run again in 2015, Conservative MP Maurice Vellatcott touts that his accomplishments include getting funding withdrawn from “radical special interest groups.” This while promoting his own radical special interest groups.

With the nomination races shaping up in Toronto Centre, here are some profiles of the candidates.

And Maclean’s Aaron Wherry responds to my Senate punditry post from the other night, which is a good step in having an actual reasoned debate.