And we have by-election results! The two easy races were Provencher, where the Conservatives held, and Bourassa, where the Liberals held, but things were tighter in Toronto Centre, where Liberal Chrystia Freeland ultimately won out. Brandon-Souris, however, was the biggest surprise, where the Liberals an Conservatives were neck-and-neck for most of the night, but ultimately, it was a victory for Conservative Larry Maguire, squeaking it out at the end by a couple of hundred votes. Pundits, start spinning your victories and losses now, but one thing that does seem pretty clear is that the Liberals do seem to be competitive again nationally, as they very nearly took Brandon-Souris and they even gained considerable ground in true-blue Conservative Provencher. Also, the nomination shenanigans clearly hurt the Conservatives in Brandon-Souris, while the current cloud of scandal around Harper probably didn’t help any. Anne Kingston gave some vignettes from Toronto Centre over the morning as ballots were cast. CBC posted four storylines from the by-elections to watch going in, while Laura Payton explains why the narrative of the Middle Class has dominated the race (hint: 93 percent of Canadians identify as “middle class”).

In ClusterDuff news, Stephen Maher talks to former Commons law clerk Rob Walsh about the bind that that the players find themselves in – that Wright could face jail time and the two lawyers face sanction unless it can be shown that Harper knew what was going on, which is politically untenable for him to admit to. Quite a rock-and-hard-place situation.

AFN National Chief Shawn Atleo has declared his opposition to the proposed First Nations Education Act, and has instead outlined five conditions for the plan to be successful which include guaranteed federal funding, joint control and better consultation.

As part of the pre-budget consultations, Jim Flaherty is asking the opposition parties for “low- to no-cost ideas” to grow the economy, and not a laundry list of new subsidies or spending programmes.

Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne was taken aback by Stephen Harper’s assertion that the collapse or the Ring of Fire negotiations was Ontario’s problem, considering that there are a great many First Nations in the area, for whom the federal government will have responsibility.

Deloitte, the audit firm that is at the centre of the Senate expense issue, and which Senator Gerstein apparently tried to influence, has received some $53 million in government contracts over the past three years. Not that I think there is any connection, mind you.

The WTO’s Dispute Resolution Panel rejected an appeal on the European Union ban on seal products, and the reaction in Canada has been pretty universally negative. The government plans to appeal that decision, and notes that the “moral” grounds for the ban when it comes to animal welfare is a slippery slope that could soon apply to other agriculture or fisheries.

It looks like Brent Rathgeber picked up some Conservative an NDP support for the amendments to his amended private member’s bill.

The attempt to get court transcripts and police files regarding abuse claims at one residential school is headed to the Ontario Superior Court next month.

The impending arrival of American FATCA provisions to “smoke out” Americans with money in Canadian banks is almost certainly in violation of Section 15 of the Charter, and is a fishing expedition on the part of the American IRS, but we’ll see if they will succeed in getting away with it because of their economic clout in the penalties they are threatening.

Economist Mike Moffatt looks at what a truly fair minimum wage would look like, and finds that the CUPE and CCPA panel recommendations of $14/hour are not constructive models, but rather find that targeting to 45 percent of the average wage – adjusting for inflation and frequent re-examination of the rate while also looking at social transfers – is the better balance between benefits and minimising job losses.

Energy economist Andrew Leach looks at the reporting around productivity figures, and how Input/Output modelling is not conducive when it comes to discussing pipelines.

Up today: Reports from both the Auditor General and the Correctional Investigator. There’s going to be a lot to talk about!