The country needs a new computer programme to deal with Employment Insurance claims, and Shared Services Canada and Employment and Social Developmemnt have until 2016 to do it – leaving almost no time to address any inevitable problems once they procure and install said new system, and more ominously, their presentation says, “there is no Plan B.” Missing that deadline means an escalation of costs, and I’m sure a whole host of other problems with the EI programme as a whole. But hey, it’s not like this government has ever had problems with procurements, and there has never been a boondoggle around new software before, right? Oh, wait…

There are questions about how the cuts to Fisheries and Oceans will affect the Coast Guard, which could also mean less offshore fisheries surveillance, and other moves that simply defy logic.

A secret document obtained by PostMedia shows that the government is looking to developing countries in order to find a market for Canadian-made firearms, seeing as our own military operations are ramping down.

Paul Wells looks at Jim Flaherty’s performance and his political trajectory, where he was once seen as the future of politics in Ontario, to his current attempts to balance the budget before the next election. On CTV’s Question Period on Sunday, Flaherty hinted that there could be a larger than expected surplus in 2015 – and then proceeded to make some imprudent remarks about monetary policy, which he has no business talking about considering that the Bank of Canada is arm’s length from the government.

Charlie Angus not only continues to not take personal responsibility for the broken rules with his election campaign, but he’s also concern trolling that cracking down on those rules will discourage future volunteers. So at what point to do those rules he insists on being followed matter enough that there be no enforcement, or that the personal responsibility he insists that others take apply to him as well?

In a rather curious turn of events, former cabinet minister Chuck Strahl, who heads the Security and Intelligence Review Committee, which oversees CSIS, is applying to lobby on behalf of Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline. The fact that there are accusations that CSIS has been tipping off energy companies and monitoring their opponents doesn’t make this bit of information look any better.

The NDP appear to have beaten their $750,000 December fundraising goal – but they’re still a long way behind the Conservatives and Liberals, who say they each brought in over $2 million over the same period. Michael Den Tandt believes that the parties, desperate for cash now that the per-vote subsidy is nearly gone, are dumbing down politics with their constant demands for donations in some of the most crass ways possible. Not that politics was all about engaging and thoughtful conversations before the funding system changed – right? Oh, wait…

A Manitoba First Nation is being audited over questionable loans and advances made to former band council members.

Maclean’s rounds up the renewed bout of Harper resignation speculation.

Andrew Potter writes about political reform as the contest between the naïve and cynical view of politics. It’s really quite brilliant, and you should read it as I can’t possibly do justice to it in a couple of sentences, but I will say that he’s completely right about Michael Chong’s bill, that it will do little in the end, and that it belongs right next to proportional representation in the Magic Pony corral.

And it’s approaching the 113th birthday of BC woman, Merle Barwis, who is the last person in the country to have lived under Queen Victoria’s reign.