Wind Mobile dropping out of the wireless spectrum auction – because the murky rules around foreign investment restricts them from getting the capital they need – pretty much scuppers the government’s chances of getting a fourth national carrier in the system. But then came the spin – Mike Lake, the parliamentary secretary, went on Power & Politics to talk about the ten bidders in the auction – neglecting that seven of them are regional players – while touting the drop in prices in the industry. You know, the kinds of things that his government has been complaining about in ads they’re putting out. Meanwhile, NDP MP Jinny Simms declared that a fourth national carrier was needed for competition – except her party was vehemently opposed to Verizon coming into the marketplace. Well done, everyone.

An incident of online harassment against MP Michelle Rempel raises questions about what can be done about it, especially when law enforcement doesn’t treat the online world as though it’s real, or have the tools to deal with it.

The government’s plans to strip the citizenship from those who obtained it by fraudulent means has hit a snag, in part because they’ve cast their net over-broadly and are getting held up in backlogs and court challenges.

The government was getting set to hire a consultant to give strategic advice on negotiating free trade agreements that are advantageous to the auto sector – and then cancelled the contract on the very same day. Turns out the minister felt they had enough in-house advice after all.

The NDP wants you to know that they’re out of debt thanks to a “surge” in online donations. Err, great – except that they were the only party with debt after the last election, and the latest fundraising quarter had them running neck-and-neck with the Green Party, and far behind the Liberals and Conservatives.

The Conservatives have set up a dedicated page on the party leader’s site to promote Stephen Harper’s trip to Israel – err, “The Holy Land,” as Jason Kenney dubs it – complete with a donate button! Apparently it’s going to be a “historic trip,” as though no other Prime Minister has been there before. Oh, wait… But Harper’s getting a bird sanctuary named after him, so that’s totally historic.

On the topic of Israel, there are concerns that the government’s declared positions on Israel are seen to contradict the officially published positions on the Foreign Affairs website, in particular with regards to occupied territories and settlement construction. That the government has been murky in their declarations causes problems, as did a meeting that John Baird held in East Jerusalem.

Back in October, Elections Canada officials raided the company owned by Dean Del Mastro’s cousin in regards to the allegations that he was trying to skirt campaign finance rules by paying for his employees to donate to the campaign. Del Mastro’s cousin denies the allegations, and decries Elections Canada spending so much time and money on such allegedly small amounts from two elections ago. Because broken rules don’t count if the amounts are small, don’t you know?

The Ontario Superior Court has declared that the government must turn over the OPP files on the St. Anne’s residential school to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The government had been holding back over privacy concerns.

In case you were worried about it, Tony Clement has repaid the treasury for his second set of improper gold-embossed business cards.

He may have been only out of government for about six months, but Vic Toews is now lobbying the provincial government in Manitoba, and his company was registered by his common-law spouse while he was still a minister. He’s not lobbying federally, however, so it seems that he hasn’t broken any rules.

Here’s a look back at the career of recently retired Senator Gerald Comeau, who was a tireless advocate for Acadian issues and the fishery.

Audio from that ethnic media event that Harper held in Vancouver has been made public, and it’s a bit unnerving in how fawning it can be.

The Kitimat Council came up with their referendum question on the Northern Gateway Pipeline terminus, which oddly enough is convoluted and doesn’t really ask whether they want the terminus in their community or not.

My column this week looks at the issue of open nominations, now that they are starting to crop up around the country with riding redistribution and in advance of the next federal election.

And Chrystia Freeland writes about the snark versus smarm debate, where the danger is less about voter apathy, but rather the danger that the snark turns into voter contempt.