From the Manning Networking Conference, we saw presentations by Brad Wall, who wants the country to be both a food and energy superpower (and he insists that he has no federal ambitions, which makes one wonder all the more about his motivations as to why he’s constantly carrying Stephen Harper’s lunch among the premiers), by Jim Prentice, who said that there needs to be stronger environmental connections to achieve their energy goals like Keystone XL, and Jason Kenney announced progress on his Canada Job Grant plan before saying that he not only supports income splitting, but he made a somewhat impolitic statement about “stable families” being the best way to help youth find economic success in adulthood – but then couldn’t answer about his apparent abandonment of kids from “unstable families.” (Also, one supposes that such a statement was also a sop to the social conservative base that he’s courting). The party’s pollster gave grave warnings about how the party’s numbers are doing, and it’s not good, as the Liberal brand has rebounded, something that happened even before Trudeau became the leader. He also found that there’s just no interest in a discussion on marijuana on either side, and suggested that they drop it. Andrew Coyne notes that the Conference is like the real Conservative convention – as opposed to the Harper Party one that happened last fall, and that we’re seeing more people starting to disassociate themselves from Harper and his way of doing politics.

Speaking of the Canada Job Grant agreement, it looks like it’s just an agreement in principle with twelve provinces and territories, Quebec being the exception as they want to opt out with full compensation (but not just because it’s what Quebec always does, but because they have a system currently in place that seems to work for them in achieving the same goals). It now appears that the implementation of these agreements will be individual agreements with each province and territory, some of whom still have concerns.

The Estimates don’t include EI figures this year, apparently because they don’t need to be voted on, and for the sake of “clarity and usability.” But hey, it’s also one less set of numbers for parliamentarians to have at their disposal when they try to hold the government to account, and I’ll bet that there will be very few protests about it, because the estimates system in our parliament is completely broken.

Peter MacKay says a public sex offender registry is coming soon – because that worked out so well in the States after several vigilante killings. I also have a hard time seeing how it would pass a Charter test, which means yet one more questionable piece of legislation being hauled before the courts.

After several attempts the House adopted a motion on the situation in Venezuela, but one should note that it happened after QP on a Friday, so there really weren’t a whole lot of MPs in the House to do the adopting – for what it’s worth.

In Kyiv, John Baird met with the new government officials, and former opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, and said that Canada is not the world’s referee, but that he was there to support human rights, freedom, and the rule of law. Baird also announced $200,000 in medical aid. Closer to home, the NDP want to know why Canada sold over $80,000 worth of weapons to the Yanukovych government over the past few years.

One of our two naval supply ships, the HMCS Protecteur, suffered an engine room fire and is being towed to Pearl Harbour, Hawaii, for inspection and to treat the crew’s injuries. It sounds like it was a pretty major fire, and that could spell the end of the nearly fifty-year-old vessel.

After John Baird has made a number of statements about anti-gay laws in Russia, Uganda and Nigeria, experts wonder why he’s been so silent about the criminalization of homosexuality in India.

Aaron Wherry notes local support for budget elements that will create a problem for NDP MP Brian Masse.

Justin Trudeau’s wife, Sophie Gregoire, gave birth to a son yesterday, whom they have named Hadrian. And no, I’m not sure that I understand the politics of virility but I’m assured that this is a Thing.

Mark D. Jarvis writes about the Samara study on Canadians’ participation in political parties, and quite rightly points out that the time for sitting back is over – that if they want parties to reflect them, then they have to stop up and to the hard work of getting involved.

Susan Delacourt parses a new poll that shows that those twenty percent of Canadians who actually know about the Fair Elections Act believe it to be the government settling a grudge against Elections Canada, and how that kind of perception is a problem when it comes to governing this country.

Kevin Milligan looks at the Statistics Canada wealth survey data and says that most of the commentators aren’t exactly getting it right, and explains what the picture we’re seeing really means.

And Tabatha Southey finds the government to be behaving like six-year-olds with Ukraine as the tree house they’re trying to claim ownership over, while everyone needs to calm down about the bad jokes that both sides make.