When asked about why his concern over the “stagnating” middle class and how it doesn’t fit with the trend lines in the data, Justin Trudeau said that he’s looking at the data since the 1980s – just before two massive recessions – and cited that ESDC report that said that the middle class dream is “more myth than reality.” It certainly raises questions about the supposed commitment to evidence-based policy when it doesn’t fit with the narrative that they’ve decided to fight the next election on.

Aaron Wherry notes that anecdotes about voter identification cards being used fraudulently have been heard in the Commons as far back as 2001, but we don’t actually have any cases of charges or convictions to see that any of these allegations have been proven in court. And yet, this is a central plank that the Conservatives are hammering away at with the elections bill.

The Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of the world’s 15 million Shia Ismaili Muslims, addressed a joint session of Parliament yesterday, praising Canada’s example of freedom, tolerance, and multiculturalism. And he was full of good humour and was a pretty engaging speaker to boot. His connections to Canada are deep, and he was made an honorary citizen in 2010. Of course, the Conservatives couldn’t get past their best instincts, an opposition MPs couldn’t get invites to his events in Toronto.

Paul Wells looks over the government’s actions around the delegation that been sent to Ukraine to meet with the interim government there, and notes that it’s actually more insulting to the Ukrainians than it is to the opposition parties that they couldn’t be included, because of cheap and petty partisanship. As that delegation touches down in Ukraine, back home, the government is holding off on imposing further sanctions against the former president and his inner circle while they wait and see what happens, a decision that the opposition calls a mistake.

Rumour has it that Jason Kenney has reached a deal with all of the provinces – except Quebec – on the Canada Job Grant. Quebec wants to opt out with compensation – because Quebec.

The Main Estimates are out, and PostMedia digs into them, finding that the budget cuts are taking hold across the board in government departments, while Statistics Canada is going to undertake a comprehensive review of how it collects data with an eye to being more cost-effective. The Senate Ethics Officer, however, is getting a spending boost, as she’s carrying out an increased number of investigations.

Mentally ill inmates transferred from the regional treatment centre at the Kingston penitentiary to Millhaven are being housed in “grossly inadequate” conditions that are alarming to the Correctional Investigator, as well as the families of some of those inmates, for whom one’s mother’s son’s schizophrenia seems to be getting worse in this new environment and not better. But hey, remember when closing these facilities before new ones were prepared wasn’t going to cause any problems?

The RCMP’s decision to reclassify a certain type of Swiss firearm as restricted because of modifications that have been made to it has the government scrambling to look like they’re still on the side of gun-owners, without also undermining the RCMP, and hence they’re using language like ensuring that “firearms owners who acted in good faith are not penalised as a result of the actions of others.” You know, to ensure that they’re still the victims in all of this.

After he was unable to amend his own bill after it was gutted by the government in committee, Independent MP Brent Rathgeber took the unprecedented move of killing his own bill, refusing to concur the version that had returned from committee, and it now drops from the Order Paper. This is the first time it has ever been done, but the precedent means that it will help MPs protect their bills from any future mendacious amendments from a government.

The NDP are concern trolling the investigation into Senator Colin Kenny, and want to ensure that all of the allegations are properly looked into to ensure that it’s not a “travesty of justice” – while in the House they use his name as an apparent reason to abolish the upper chamber. Because that’s showing concern for the alleged victims.

After the government turned down the Prosperity Mine project because of environmental concerns, Conservative MP Dick Harris put out a press release decrying the decision and saying that he takes it as a personal failure, and there is idle speculation that he may resign over it. It was also noted that he’s barely mentioned said mine on the record, for what it’s worth.

Canadian Business has an investigation into Canadian companies who pay almost no taxes thanks to loopholes that the government planned to close, but where bullied into actually widening. It’s pretty eye-opening stuff.

Conservatives – small-c and big-C – from across the country are gathering this weekend in Ottawa for the Manning Networking Conference. John Geddes discusses the significance of it here.

And Canadian comedian Seth Rogan spoke before an American congressional subcommittee about Alzheimer’s, as his mother-in-law is stricken with the disease. And it was a pretty good presentation, though I will note that we rarely get celebrities appearing before Canadian parliamentary committees to testify, though the proposed “censorship” by means of  film tax credits a few years ago was an exception.