The Liberals’ policy convention is now underway in Montreal, and while things started off with a bit of an oops – the feed from the main stage was live to the reporters’ room while Trudeau was practicing his speech, giving it away before he could make it, and it included his camera directions. He delivered his rah-rah partisan speech to kick things off, which included a couple of digs at Pauline Marois, and to Harper and Mulcair in which he said he wasn’t going to play their game of trying to make Canadians angry, and ended it with a Skype call to his family (as they stayed in Ottawa, his wife due to give birth any day now). A few Senate Liberals, but not many, are in attendance, for which the NDP are trying to get a social media shaming going. Mike Moffatt offers three questions for the Liberals to look at as they try to formulate economic policy during this weekend’s convention. Kate Heartfield notes the implicit populist tones in Trudeau’s economics video, and how it still creates an Us and Them in order to play that populist card, while still trying to look like he’s above tribalism. Michael Den Tandt writes that the broad strokes economic policy will be looking at ways to bring the Red Tories and Blue Liberals back into the fold and away from the Conservative coalition. Paul Wells writes about the Conservatives hoping that the convention will prove to be a gaffe-fest for Trudeau (and along the way, coins the best descriptor for the Fair Elections Act as being “Conservative-fair”).

The budget – err, Economic Action Plan 2014™ contained a thumbnail sketch of an “average family” to showcase the effects of the government’s tax cuts. The problem? That the numbers used in the profile of said family have little relation to reality, especially when it comes to income and income growth. Oops.

The NDP have signalled that for their opposition day on Monday, they’ll debate a motion to hold cross-country hearings on the elections bill (that yes, have timelines included).

Jason Kenney says that his reply to the provinces’ counter-offer on the Canada Job Grant is coming “shortly.”

Some $20 million of funds pledged for Typhoon relief in the Philippines remains unaccounted for, even though the government pledges it will announce details “in the near future.”

Doctors are warning a Senate committee that loopholes that allow farmers to import antibiotics by the truckload are contributing to the rise of superbugs that are resistant to traditional antibiotics. Drug-resistant bacteria are now spreading through the food chain, while agricultural antibiotic uses is virtually untrackable.

Two members of the Canadian Forces at CFB Petawawa have been arrested for defamatory libel because of a Facebook page they were running that was attacking gay and lesbian military personnel.

Uh-oh! More studies are showing that the amount of oilsands tailings leaching into groundwater is more than previously thought.

With an election in Quebec looming, the provincial Liberals blocked passage of the end-of-life bill because they felt it hasn’t had enough debate. If the PQ government falls over the budget, the bill would die on the Order Paper.

Former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney thinks that Justin Trudeau should adopt his Meech Lake Accords proposal for Senate appointments, being that the provincial governments submit a list of candidates for appointment, since it keeps the power out of the federal party’s hands, or prevent “some crowd from the Order of Canada to nominate their neighbours and friends.” One wonders, however, if that doesn’t put the Senate’s focus too much on provincial matters than federal ones from a regional perspective (and yes, there is a difference).

The Queen won’t interfere with the Northwest Territories devolution process, despite a request by some local First Nations, because it’s not her job. In fact, her job is to be neutral, which is why we have a loyal opposition in our system of government, and people really need to stop bugging her because they are losing at politics.

Liberal MP Chrystia Freeland, who has deep ties to Ukraine, talks about the situation there and what Canada can do about it. The government did expand sanctions on president Yanukovych and his officials.

Here’s a look at retired General Andrew Leslie’s family history in politics – both of his grandfathers served as Liberal defence ministers, believe it or not.

Economist Mike Moffatt responds to Stephen Gordon’s post about the waning need for job creation by breaking down the numbers along gender lines, where it looks like the economy has recovered more for women than for men, and that the trend is that many of those traditionally male-oriented jobs aren’t coming back.

And the Ottawa Citizen let go of one of their best columnists, Dan Gardner. His farewell post is here.