All of the tongues were wagging yesterday as it appeared that Finance Minister Jim Flaherty started backing away from the government’s promise to implement income splitting for families once the budget gets balanced. Unfortunately, this also resulted in a number of hyperbolic lines of copy, with things like “split in the caucus,” because there can’t be disagreement without it being a major issue, which in turn makes the tendency for rigid message control all the more prevalent (although, it is a bigger issue when it’s the PM and finance minister who can’t agree, but let’s keep things within reason). Or all the musings about Flaherty “being in the doghouse” because Harper himself was answering questions in QP – which people started complaining about. Seriously – Harper was answering questions! Like a Prime Minister! This is a good thing, people! John Geddes puts Flaherty’s musings in with the context of his broader freelancing from the party line of late, while Kevin Milligan offers an overview on the research into income splitting. Andrew Coyne writes that the rift between Harper and Flaherty on clear party policy shows that perhaps Flaherty should think about stepping down.

The NDP have decided to launch a procedural war over the new elections bill, declining to allow committee travel for any committee unless Procedure and House Affairs can do its cross-country consultations. We’ll see how long this lasts. The government grumbles about being held hostage by the opposition, as though Parliament were a rubber stamp for the government’s plans. Meanwhile, in a closed door meeting with Elections Canada staff, it seems that Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand denounced the new Fair Elections Act, not that it’s hard to blame him after all of the ways that the bill targets him and his position.

Oh noes! Senators spend money on travelling to and from Ottawa! Sometimes with their spouses! On executive flights! Because apparently Senators are supposed to subsist on sackcloth and ashes. Yes, some of the costs were on the excessive side, and there seems to be some recognition, and in some cases it was a booking error. But I’m just having a hard time getting worked up about this, as it becomes a contest of “more frugal than thou” as we see with MPs, and I don’t think anyone gets served by this in the end. Do we shriek with outrage when executives in this country fly business class? Oh, but they’re not paid out of the public purse! But at what point do we make public service so unattractive to people who face long commutes weekly to what has been described by many parliamentarians that I’ve spoken with as a “lonely city,” away from family and friends? Many of these senators have taken pay cuts to do this public service, only to face more abuse and derision by the public. I just have a hard time lighting my hair on fire every time one of them spends money, especially when we put it in some tiny bit of perspective. (Oh, and “the Liberals haven’t disclosed their numbers” is not entirely true – their numbers are disclosed, but not broken down as the Conservatives have started doing).

Jason Kenney has given the provinces and territories until April 1^st to come to a deal on the Canada Job Grant proposal, lest he go the grants alone by federal contribution and do it through Service Canada. Kenney says that the programme guarantees jobs because of the employer involvement, but it makes you wonder if he’s willing to simply write-off the lower skilled people being helped by the current Labour Market Agreements completely, since there doesn’t seem to be any other programmes geared toward helping them.

Harper told QP yesterday that DND itself requested that their procurement budget dollars be moved off of this year’s books in order to be accessible later. It’s a likely story, but also ignores that the reality of doing that will mean that the costs will continue to escalate due to inflation, which will eat into the procurement budgets and that could mean even fewer ships and helicopters than currently planned for.

AFN National Chief Shawn Atleo is urging the government to turn over any remaining residential school documents, as truth is an essential part of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Written in advance of yesterday’s PMQ-like performance by Stephen Harper in QP, Aaron Wherry looked at the problems with PMQ as perceived by the British public. Would that we have those problems here, in our debased puppet theatre we call QP.

Senate Liberal Senator Dennis Dawson (I know, I know, but Senator is his title) has re-introduced his bill to limit pre-writ political advertising. It’s a long shot, but it does seem like a pretty glaring loophole to be closed, especially if we are moving into an era of fixed election dates where the campaign period extends for the full year (or longer) and not just the writ period.

An NDP staffer bought the plants from the House of Commons being auctioned off by Public Works, but now needs to decide what to do with them.

And suspended senators Wallin and Duffy are no longer being paid for speaking engagements, no doubt related to the clouds that surround them, and they are no longer listed by their one-time speaker’s bureau. (I wrote about why Wallin proved a speaker’s bureau was preferable to motivational speaking as a parliamentarian’s duties here).

Up today: The new Building Canada Fund infrastructure programme details are due to be announced.