The issue of retired General Andrew Leslie’s moving benefit payment continued on Monday, and perhaps even gained some steam as Rob Nicholson decided to double down on the partisanship, saying that it was indicative of a “Liberal sense of entitlement,” and claimed that Leslie was wrong when he said that he wasn’t aware of how much they totalled. Never mind that Leslie said that it was a private company that dealt with everything, and that the expenses were almost entirely due to real estate fees (which, on a million dollar house, would be close to that $72,000). Oh, and Nicholson also called it moving from “mansion to mansion,” which none of the photos really showed any house too mansion-like. The Auditor General assessed the programme from which he gained this benefit a few years ago, and that if Rob Nicholson wants to turn the blame to anyone, it may be the real estate companies that his department contracts out to. (Also, that if Nicholson thinks that every departing soldier who avails himself of the programme needs to do an independent assessment, he’s asking a lot of said veterans). Thirteen retired generals have made similar intra-city moves in the past few years, which may be prompting the review, but it would take away from the universality of the benefit. One former general used this benefit to move to the UAE – even though he was disgraced and tossed out for having sex with a subordinate. (This is the same former general currently in an Afghan jail over an issue with the private security company he works for). Andrew Cohen dissects the partisan tenor of the attack, and wonders why anyone would want to serve the public if this is the suspicion and abuse they are subjected to.

Tonda MacCharles starts putting pieces together and builds a convincing portrait of what the Conservatives’ 2015 strategy will look like, and what the constituent pieces are that will get them there.

The Supplementary Estimates contain a request for an additional $35 million to extend the lifespan of our Aurora search and rescue planes, because their replacement procurement process has been twice botched.

The Department of Justice is looking for the input of Canadians before they rewrite the prostitution laws that were struck down by the Supreme Court – a survey that is full of loaded questions designed to elicit responses that encourage criminalisation. Meanwhile, an internal report within the department compiles public opinion research to paint a bleak picture of a population with little confidence in either the justice system or prisons, and a recommendation that education is needed to counter it. Too bad that “education” these days consists of political fear mongering and the kind of salacious headlines that gets hits in the media.

The Commons Public Safety Committee’s study on the economics of policing is languishing in draft form while the committee has to deal with government legislation, even though members say that the only thing before them are a couple of private members’ bills which don’t take precedence.

The Correctional Investigator says that investigations of deaths behind bars are slow, inadequate and selective, and has recommended a series of changes to help address the issue.

A medical conference in Ottawa is discussing the perplexing problem of the growing number of medical specialists who can’t get jobs, despite the fact that we have issues with wait times and insufficient staffing in hospitals – but we also have problems with proper resourcing and allocation of those resources, which we need to address if we don’t want another brain drain.

One of the issues that will be up for discussion at the “Three Amigos” summit in Mexico City is the need to take action in all three countries to save the Monarch butterfly, which means ensuring a corridor of milkweed plants for them to feed from.

It sounds like most of the Senate Liberals won’t be attending the Liberal Party’s policy convention next week as they no longer feel welcome, nor do they want to be a distraction – especially as the other parties hope to take photos of them there to “prove” that Trudeau’s booting them fro caucus was just a hollow move. Too bad these people with decades of experience won’t be able to contribute to policy discussions any longer thanks to the politics of cheap optics. Well done everyone!

Economist Stephen Gordon says that aging demographics mean that the policy focus should shift from job creation, to how to maximise the value from those jobs so that they are high paying.

And it sounds like former Liberal leadership candidate Deborah Coyne is planning to run in Ottawa and not Toronto.