As was widely guessed, NDP-turned-Independent MP Bruce Hyer joined the Green Party – not that this was any big surprise. I look a look at how the NDP botched their outraged reaction here. Interestingly, Hyer went on TV later in the day and let it be known that Thomas Mulcair is one of the reasons that he would never return to the NDP, and that the culture of whipping and control is getting worse under Mulcair than it would have been with almost any other leadership candidate. (Hyer backed Nathan Cullen, for the record). Mulcair went on to imply that Hyer didn’t have any values, which just makes the whole bitter act look all the more petty.

One of the key figures in the Sponsorship Scandal, close Chrétien confidant Jacques Corriveau, has been charged with fraud in connection to the sponsorship programme at long last. PostMedia has a timeline of the Gomery inquiry here.

The NDP wants to recall the Commons Transport Committee to discuss the Canada Post changes.

Tempers flared yet again in the House of Commons recently as there was apparently another profane scuffle, this time between Jim Flaherty and Jason Kenney over comments Kenney made about Rob Ford. Between this, the Seeback/Butt incident and Van Loan marching over to confront Thomas Mulcair in the spring, well, it’s starting to make our genteel parliament start to resemble something a bit more like Taiwan or Ukraine.

Access to Information documents show that Transport Canada was warned in an audit in 2006 of the lax practices around the transport of dangerous goods in the prairies and Quebec. Meanwhile, Transport Canada official searched the offices of Irving Oil in New Brunswick after obtaining warrants. The train that exploded in Lac Mégantic was headed for an Irving refinery.

Peter Van Loan doesn’t think the Reform Act is necessary. While he has a point about the vetting of candidates, it’s entirely undermined by his cry that the measures of the bill would destabilise the government, and something something troubled economic times.

The Senate Speaker announced that a four-person commission has been struck to examine the best technology for getting cameras into the Senate chamber, and the best way to distribute it. Part of the complicating factor is the broadcast agreement with CPAC, who doesn’t exactly have room on their channel to include Senate proceedings daily, so it will likely mean some kind of web streaming option.

When asked about the recent rash of resignations (because apparently Senator Segal’s departure in six months to take on a prestigious new post counts as part of this trend), Speaker Kinsella said he didn’t see a causation between the recent scandals and these resignations. He also said that he has yet to meet an elected official who lies awake at night thinking up ways to screw taxpayers, rather than people who make bad choices or have some bad ideas that he would never agree with.

As of April, MPs will be able to replace their BlackBerries with iPhones if they so choose. While this does make me wonder about security – and problems with instant messages being captured for Access to Information requests if they’re from ministers’ offices – it deals yet another blow to BlackBerry. Unless, of course, MPs get shamed into supporting BlackBerry because they’re a Canadian company (for the time being).

That Hill staffing agreement that includes a lifetime nondisclosure clause appears to be heading back for a review after complaints about that particular clause, and there seems to be a willingness to revisit it and change that provision from all of the parties.

John Geddes looks at the government’s talking point that expanding the CPP will kill thousands of jobs, and finds that it’s only a credible fear if it happens all at once rather than being phased in over several years, though not everyone is convinced that CPP is the only solution to dealing with a looming pension crisis.

National Defence says that they’re going to get long-term savings by merging their various facilities in the National Capital Region into a smaller number of facilities, centred largely at the old Nortel campus. Most of these moves will be completed by 2020.

Attawapiskat has signed a $2.2 million contract for five housing units as part of a larger housing arrangement. Chief Theresa Spence and local MP Charlie Angus blame the federal government for being so slow, though my own contacts in the department have quietly complained that there is a problem where funds for that band council often are disbursed and then spend on other things, which exacerbates existing problems.

Canadian Business’ James Cowan (not the Senator) points to the absurdity and poor practice of Canada using its military procurement as a jobs strategy, which does a disservice to our military and the procurement system as a whole. On the topic of botched procurements, it looks like Public Works is close to salvaging the Sikorsky helicopter deal, but one wonders how they’ll overcome the very big problem of unshielded electronics.

In documents filed in Federal Court regarding his $20 million lawsuit against the federal government, Omar Khadr explains his guilty plea – that he knew there was no way he could be acquitted in the rigged American military court system, and that the plea was his best chance of returning home to Canada.

In his year-ender with PostMedia, Justin Trudeau spoke about spending the year getting his ground game built up, which means engaging people at the grassroots level, as well as the fact that he’s basing his political future on the gamble that Canadians are better than Harper gives them credit for.

Oh look – yet another journalists suggests that the Senate can be emptied by attrition without consequence or without a constitutional amendment, seeing that legislation must pass the Senate under our system of government. Because hey, it’s not like the constitution matters or anything. I’m really disappointed that this time it’s Don Martin.

Susan Delacourt muses about how the changes to Canada Post are going to impact political culture in this country, and wonders if door-knocking will also become a thing of the past as voters continue to disengage and turn away from the outside world and the strangers lurking out there.

Andrew Coyne laments the level of secrecy, denial and obfuscation that typified the ClusterDuff affair is permeating the whole of government these days.

While this is an Ontario issue, it should also be considered a cautionary tale for the federal government as well, as economist Mike Moffatt demolishes the deal signed between the province and Cisco Systems that is intended to create jobs but likely will do nothing at all.

And finally online is Scott Feschuk’s exploration of the year’s top newsmakers, as illustrated by means of making a peanut butter and jam sandwich. Enjoy.