Late Friday afternoon, Chuck Strahl resigned as Chair of the Security and Intelligence Review Committee, not because he’d done anything wrong in his part-time lobbying for Enbridge to the provincial government, but because he didn’t want his activities to be a distraction for the government, which is fair.

Stephen Harper and company visited a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan, where Harper pledged $150 million in aid – $100 million for basics like food and shelter, and the other $50 for a special UNICEF programme for the children affected by the conflict. Terry Milewski looks over the trip as a whole and notes that the lack of snubs or gaffes pretty much makes the trip a success. Chris Selley revisits Jean Chrétien’s visit to Israel in 2000, during the supposed “golden age” of Canadian diplomacy, and shows that the glow may be a little rosy in people’s recollections.

Her Majesty the Queen sends her sympathy to the families of those who died in the fire at L’Isle-Verte, Quebec.

As it turns out, Advertising Standards Canada can’t really do anything about the government’s misleading Economic Action Plan™ ads related to non-existent job programmes. They can’t even confirm that there were sanctions unless the offender refuses to stop airing the misleading ads, at which point they would name them to shame them. And what was it that people were saying about there not longer being any shame left in politics?

Chris Alexander is planning on a bill to modernize the Citizenship Act, which will hopefully close the loopholes preventing those “lost Canadians” from finally getting their citizenship, but also to strip the citizenship from dual-citizens in “extraordinary circumstances” like treason. In other words, looking “tough on crime” without being fully cognisant of the repercussions of doing so.

In response to a BC Civil Liberties Association lawsuit, the Communications Security Establishment wants people to know that any monitoring of Canadians’ metadata is “incidental,” and that they play a vital role in thwarting cyber threats.

Ruh-roh! The F-35s still haven’t been able to solve their software problems, and that the glitches are “unacceptable,” affecting “Fusion, radar, electronic warfare, navigation, electro-optical targeting system, distributed aperture system, helmet-mounted display, and datalink.” That’s…not a small list of problems.

Thomas Mulcair wrote a letter back to the Sri Lankan High Commission to let them know that his MP, Rathika Sitsabaiesan, had not intention of embarrassing the Sri Lankan government and had every right to be concerned after she was being followed – before he harangued them on their human rights record.

Conservative MP Terrence Young wants a national registry of unnatural deaths, as a way of doing something about coroner’s reports that get little attention, and maybe preventing more of them going forward.

Senator David Wells talks about scaling Aconcagua in Argentina.

A year ago, Maurice Vellacott successfully sued a Liberal candidate for claiming that Vellacott had been charged with sexual assault. Now they’ve not only made up, but said former candidate is trying to sue his lawyers and is blaming the Liberal party, especially the campaign manager who told him to ask about the supposed charges. Err, except he had a choice to repeat the allegations without knowing if they were true, and judging by the severity of the accusation, he should have known better. But hey, apparently personal responsibility is dead.

Country music singer George Canyon is planning to challenge the Conservative nomination in the new riding of Bow River. He doesn’t plan to give up his country music either, but considering how much awful music we’ve had to put up from the likes of Charlie Angus, it can’t make our musical offerings on the Hill much worse.

Susan Delacourt writes about the Conservatives trying to associate themselves with all things Olympic under the rubric of brand association. It’s also a good distraction from the coming austerity budget that will focus on a lot of asset sales, layoffs and closures in the race to balance the budget by 2015.

PostMedia offers a preview of what to expect when Parliament comes back next week, as well as a look ahead at upcoming Private Members’ Bills.

And iPolitics gives you the five must-have items you need in preparation for Parliament’s return on Monday.