By day two of examining the Fair Elections Act, more of the flaws have become apparent – limiting the ability of the Chief Electoral Officer to speak publicly, leaving the job of promoting elections to parties – who tend to only target likely voters and would be in danger of entrenching disenfranchisement, the end of the “vouching” system likely to disenfranchise more marginalised voters, and no real oversight of parties themselves during elections. Even more concerning – even to former CEO Jean-Pierre Kingsley, who has been otherwise in favour of the bill – is the provision that exempts the party from counting fundraising expenses for anyone who has donated over $20 to the party over the past year. In other words, it’s a backdoor loophole to keep an increasingly costly practice from counting against spending limits. Oh, and after a whole two hours of debate, the government moved time allocation. Because we apparently can’t have too much democracy. Canadian Dissensus finds even more problems with moving the Commissioner of Elections over to the Director of Public Prosecution’s desk. Kady O’Malley writes how the provisions on limiting bequests will likely disadvantage the NDP the most.

The government announced the creation of a new military procurement system that they say will be more streamlined in the decision making, have better engagement with industry and more oversight – but critics note that it’s far more bureaucratic, and the focus on creating jobs is actually a detriment to a good procurement system. Meanwhile, Diane Finley has been calling out the defence industry for not fulfilling commitments to generating economic activity in Canada in exchange for contracts, never mind that the system is basically a blunt instrument with a number of problems.

With the new citizenship overhaul bill being tabled today, stakeholders have their wishlists and flags for problems – like any attempt to limit “anchor babies.”

Maclean’s looks at how the government ballsed up their own attempt to deport failed refugee claimants through their “Wanted by CBSA” programme, which has endangered some of those claimants in their countries of origin as their home governments will now target them as possible terror suspects and subject them to torture. Slow clap, Harper government. Slow clap.

The government concluded negotiations with the Americans over their FATCA – the law that has them taxing Americans not in the country, including “accidental Americans” who may not know that they have citizenship because they have at least one American parent. The deal will apparently keep the IRS from breaching our privacy laws by using CRA as a go-between.

The government has announced that it will be closing the loopholes in regulations around consultations for new cell phone towers.  Because nobody wants a tower in their neighbourhood (but everyone will complain that they get lousy cell reception).

The Auditor General has named Julie Gelfand, a former mining executive, as the new Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development. In her interview with PostMedia, she shows that she has long been an advocate of sustainable development.

CN Rail and its union sounds like they have reached a deal, thus removing the likelihood that the government would introduce back-to-work legislation by the weekend.

Conservative MP Royal Galipeau is battling cancer, but he’s still attending votes and still plans to run in the next election.

James Bezan has concluded his dispute with Elections Canada over the cost of his signs, and then immediately went on TV to whinge that Elections Canada feels biased and that they have too much power. Because it’s not like enforcing fair play in elections is important or anything.

Liberal MP and former justice minister Irwin Cotler has announced that he won’t be seeking re-election in 2015. Previously he had been targeted by Conservative robocalls in his riding that spread false rumours of impending retirement, which the Speaker of the House called “reprehensible.” This time, however, it’s for real. Among his rounds to the media, Cotler spoke about the role of Parliament as being the voice of the people.

Aaron Wherry reminds us where the “Amen for higher taxes” quote from Chrystia Freeland came from – around the expiration of the Bush tax cuts in the US – and wonders if Kevin Sorensen wants to offer his own suggestions for how the States balances their budget.

Energy economist Andrew Leach writes about the Keystone XL pipeline versus GHG emissions, and why it makes no sense to say that saving resource revenues for the future makes one less dependent on them.

Don Martin writes how the decimation of PostMedia’s parliamentary bureau is a victory of the Prime Minister’s Office.

And I was on the Craig Needles Show on AM980 in London, ON, yesterday to talk about the charges against Brazeau and Harb.