With all of the talk about the future of the income splitting promise in doubt, Jennifer Ditchburn checks in with the family that was used as the prop for the announcement during the last election. She found that they’re not really Conservative party members, and they’re waiting to see what else gets proposed instead of income splitting before they make up their minds. Stephen Maher notes Kenney’s intrusion into the file, and how he continues to stoke the social conservative base, which may be in support of his likely leadership bid.

Paul Wells looks at all of those incremental little measures hidden in the budget, and what they add up to for Harper. Andrew Coyne finds the case for the Canada Job Grant in the budget to be compelling. Economist Stephen Gordon graphs why the government is pushing for the programme.

Stephen Harper is off to the “Three Amigos” summit next week, but expect it to be kinda frosty, what with the Mexican president annoyed that we still haven’t lifted the visa restrictions on Mexicans travelling to Canada, and the ongoing drama between Harper and Obama over the Keystone XL pipeline.

At a panel on federalism, both former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and former Quebec premier Jean Charest agreed that an expenses scandal isn’t a big enough deal to abolish the Senate, and that you couldn’t do so without the approval of Quebec anyway. Sounds about right. Mulroney also finds that he approves of Trudeau’s move to try and make a non-partisan Senate.

Chris Alexander wants to reassure rich Chinese would-be immigrants that Canada still wants them, despite the cancellation of the immigrant investor programme and suggestions that the recent changes disadvantage Chinese immigrants in particular.

The Chief of Defence Staff is concerned that the recent reporting on the rash of military suicides is possibly fuelling the problem, by giving the final act some sense of honour. The issue of suicide contagion has been long discussed and there is apparently evidence that it does exist.

The government signed a $10 billion contract to have a Canadian company supply armoured personnel carriers to Saudi Arabia, which has some worried that we’re dealing with a country that has such a poor human rights record, and where they won’t even let women drive. Not that this one contract would make a difference considering the volume of trade that already happens with Saudi Arabia, and the government really is getting concerned with the situation of the manufacturing sector in London, Ontario, which has already seen major job losses this year, and this contract will help shore up that sector.

Greg Weston looks at why critics are unsatisfied with the CSE Commissioner’s report that everything was okay with the airport metadata collection sweep.

A Federal Court judge has rapped the government’s knuckles for failing to enforce the Species At Risk Act with the protection of four species of wildlife.

The new protocol within the RCMP seems to be ensuring that information on disciplinary actions get vetted by top brass before it gets released to the media in case of sensitive information, even though that material has been released unredacted for years. The RCMP says that they’re concerned about undercover operatives or projects, and national security issues.

The Pirate Party shares Brent Rathgeber’s concerns that Elections Canada rules disadvantage independent candidates, and propose a solution in the form of electoral escrows held in trust by Elections Canada.

Senator Patrick Brazeau appeared in court for his charges of assault and sexual assault, and had the next date pushed back until April, which would only set the date for trial.

With the Liberal policy convention next weekend, Susan Delacourt notes that the Conservatives will be looking to take photos of any former Liberal Senators who are in attendance (as though they were kicked out of the party, which they were not and last I heard they still had a Charter right to freedom of association), but also thinks that the Conservatives’ attempt to show a disunited Liberal party is indeed masking fears of disunity within Conservative ranks as well.

And Michelle Rempel talks about the American bastardisation of House of Cards, and its comparison to Canadian politics.