The Liberals put out a YouTube video wherein Justin Trudeau narrated their concerns about the economy, which was a lot of angst about the middle class. Because apparently facts and figures can be displaced with talking about feelings. Suffice to say, reaction among economists has been mixed – while some like the format, they are quick to point out some of the inherent problems with the message. Things like the political nonsense that Prime Ministers directly run economies, or the assertion that the middle class “lives off their incomes and not their assets.” (Do you know which is the class that lives off of their assets? Retirees). And then there’s the assertion that middle class incomes have stagnated over thirty years, when they haven’t – they fell drastically and have recovered over that thirty-year period, so it’s not exactly an accurate description. And as Stephen Gordon points out, the recipe Trudeau offers is largely wishful thinking. But why should we let actual facts get in the way of emoting about the economy?

In a confluence of political stories, it seems that Senator Roméo Dallaire, one of the country’s most respected former Generals, was supposed to introduce retired General Andrew Leslie at the Liberal convention this weekend, but now won’t because he’s not exactly welcomed now that Justin Trudeau has kicked all of his senators out of caucus. It’s too bad, and demonstrates the way in which the move was not too far from lopping his nose off to spite his face. Michael Den Tandt writes that nobody will get away cleanly from the Leslie conflagration, but gets bogged down by the same narrative problems – this wasn’t about just moving expenses, it’s not an “entitlement” but a benefit he earned after 35 years, and the issue of having to sell a house in an economically depressed area is an apples-to-oranges comparison, all of which just muddies the water. One of the families that lost money in such a sale is headed to Federal Court, and is trying to use the attention paid to Leslie to help make their case.

In the bilateral meeting with Mexico’s president before the Three Amigos summit, Stephen Harper again reiterated that he wasn’t going to lift visa restrictions for Mexicans, but hey, they did sign an agreement on air flights so that there will be more north-south routes between countries.

Pierre Poilievre answers questions about the elections bill and the loophole around fundraising exemptions, and seems to indicate that it wouldn’t really be a loophole given the restrictions around the calls and the small number of Canadians that it would affect. I’m not sure that he’ll convince anyone, however. Poilievre also tells Aaron Wherry about the lessons he learnt from Jason Kenney when it comes to being well briefed on his own legislation and being able to answer with facts and figures rather than just sound bites.

Glacier monitoring shows that polar ice in the Canadian Arctic has been melting more rapidly since 2005.

There are questions about what the line items in the budget about the Royal Canadian Mint “aligning its activities with the government’s objective of ensuring a cost-effective supply of coins for Canadians” means when it really makes its money in the bullion market.

As the CRTC begins a second round of public consultations on the future of television, it looks like the Rogers-NHL deal will be brought up.

Residential school survivors are alleging that the Catholic Church isn’t paying out the victims that they were supposed to, unlike other denominations.

RCMP members were before the Supreme Court in a bid to unionise, which they are currently forbidden to do.

After the Avery Edison detention drama, here is a look at why detention policies should consider gender identity over anatomy.

Over in the UK, a bunch of Tory MPs want Speaker to “stop whining” about the noise level in the Commons, while other say that he should simply not call on those found heckling and to ban obviously scripted questions. *sniff* Oh, dare to dream that such a thing could happen here.

Economist Stephen Gordon talks about where the Canadian dollar is headed (hint: nobody knows, but he explains why).

My column this week looks at the reporting on perfectly legitimate expenses claimed by some senators and retired General Leslie, and how the tone of contempt for any public spending creeps in and ends up poisoning the well of public engagement.

And it sounds like Senator Patrick Brazeau has found work as a day manager at the Bare Fax strip club. No, seriously.