A CTV-commissioned poll shows that 69 percent of Canadians don’t think the Senate is useful. (Broken down, the numbers are 34 percent “strongly disagree” and 35 percent “somewhat disagree” with the statement of whether “The Senate of Canada performs a necessary and useful political function.”) The problem with that is that it goes back to the very same issue of asking people a question that they’re not taught anything about. Sure, people have heard about the Senate, but most of what they hear is either a) scandal; or b) distortion, largely arising from scandal as it affects a very small percentage of its membership. Most Canadians, if we’re honest, don’t really know the first thing about the Senate and what it does, and the media hasn’t done a stellar job in covering their good work either, which makes this kind of poll particularly fraught from the get-go. But hey, now we can use a big number to say that populist sentiment doesn’t agree with the constitutionally bound makeup of parliament! One has to wonder if the same kinds of numbers would arise if we asked whether people agreed that their pancreas serves a useful and necessary function in their bodies, or if we’d get the same kind of facile comment of “I don’t know what it does, therefore let’s just get rid of it” that this kind of ridiculous Senate polling results in.

New spaces for parental and grandparent immigration opened up yesterday, with a strict 5000 limit. Any more will not create a backlog, but will simply be returned. This move opens up a debate among immigration lawyers, some of whom don’t see the economic value of these spaces and finds that the government is just using them to appease certain constituencies, while others say that family reunification actually helps attract more talented immigrants that we are competing with other countries to find, and that the economic burden is negligible.

2014 looks to be a year of even more lawsuits by First Nations as it relates to oilsands projects because of a lack of consultation by proponents and the various regulatory agencies. Meanwhile in Northern Ontario, the First Nations there are determined to see the benefits from the development of the Ring of Fire, and they have Bob Rae as their chief negotiator.

The Auditor General looks as though he may conduct home visits for senators as the audit progresses, given the allegations that one of the residences that Senator Mac Harb claimed for was uninhabitable. It also sounds like in extreme circumstances, interviews will be conducted under oath, but one imagines that this is simply putting all of the cards on the table in advance.

The Canadian Press looks at a dozen MPs to watch over the coming year, There aren’t really any surprises on the list, though I’m not sure why Nathan Cullen was included when the paragraph was more about Olivia Chow and the possibility (likelihood?) that she’ll run to be the mayor of Toronto this year.

A Canadian sailor from HMCS Toronto was found dead in his hotel room in Seychelles after the ship made port there.

Police around the country are starting to look at de-escalation training after several fatal incidents, especially when it comes to dealing with the mentally ill.

Michael Den Tandt writes that even though our own diplomats decry the loss of influence that Canada has had on the world stage, our international peers still rate us highly in the Reputation Institute’s “most reputable countries” index.

Royal engagements were down considerably last year as a result of both maternity leave and a number of illnesses. That said, there were still an incredible number in total, in case anyone thinks that the royal family doesn’t do anything.

And PostMedia goes looking for the sources of partisan swag, and finds that both the Liberals and Conservatives are reluctant to offer a list of where they get their products from. And while the bobbleheads aren’t labelled, they all come from China. The NDP doesn’t offer much swag because they have trouble finding sources that are both Canadian and unionized, while the Green Party wants their swag to come from sustainable sources.