An election has been called in Quebec, but in Ottawa, Thomas Mulcair has declared that as there is no provincial NDP, he will remain “neutral.” And yes, he did just last weekend insist that he was going to be “Captain Canada” and fight for national unity. To that end, he says that he’ll support the federalist side (recall that he was once a provincial Liberal), but he doesn’t want people to vote only on that issue, especially because there are some Quebec Liberals who are in favour of private healthcare and so on. But wait – he also said that Marois would try to force a referendum if she wins a majority. So, he doesn’t want federalism to be the only factor, but it’s a major factor because she’ll launch a referendum that nobody wants. No doubt this has nothing to do with keeping the soft nationalists in the party fold. The Liberals, meanwhile, are on the attack saying that Mulcair can’t be neutral while the issue of separatism is on the table, while the Conservatives (who aren’t a big presence in the province) are holding back but saying that they would prefer Quebeckers choose the federalist option. Aren’t Quebec politics fun?
Canada is sending military observers to Ukraine as part of a mission by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The potential for Canada supporting a Ukrainian bit to join NATO could put us at odds with some of our European allies like France and Germany. Here’s an interesting look at why the Crimea is psychologically so important to Russia, as well as strategically.
Peter MacKay says that the government is working on legislation that would make marijuana possession a ticketable offence rather than a criminal one. But it’s not really decriminalization, because that would be evil!
The Liberals’ opposition day motion on travel disclosures got unanimous support, but an NDP proposed amendment to give the Auditor General a “clear mandate” to oversee and audit House and MP expenses was blocked.
Enbridge is turning to former cabinet minister Jim Prentice to help them rescue talks with First Nations over the Northern Gateway pipeline project.
Senator Hugh Segal said that the KMPG report on the unclear Senate spending rules should have been made available to all Senators before they voted to suspend Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin and Mac Harb, though the appetite to see them publicly punished was probably too overwhelming anyway. (Brazeau had previously been suspended because of the charges he faces over assault and sexual assault).
More Officers of Parliament are concerned about the impact on their staff of Mark Adler’s “witchhunt” bill on rooting out partisanship.
The RCMP have filed court documents in order to seize the banking records of former Harper advisor Bruce Carson as part of an investigation into alleged illegal lobbying. This is a separate investigation to his allegations of influence peddling.
A recent report shows little consistency being employed at border crossings across the country when it comes to measures to protect border agents from shootings.
From Washington DC, Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall said that the Americans will likely force concessions from Canada on GHG regulations in exchange for approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.
The Federal Court has agreed that a Russian-Canadian FINTRAC agent should have her case reviewed when after she her security clearance was revoked over possible security concerns.
Surprising no one, the Liberals have sent out fundraising emails based on the addresses they collected from the congratulatory messages for the birth of Hadrian Trudeau.
The unpaid debts of former Liberal leadership candidates could prove a problem with their seeking nominations, as it could mean that their nominations won’t be “green lit” by the party. The Fair Elections Act has some provisions around leadership debts that could make it easier for some of the long-standing leadership debt holders to finally repay theirs (after the rules were changed mid-race by the Conservatives and NDP as part of the Federal Accountability Act).
In case you were wondering, former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien recently received the Order of Friendship from Russia recently.
Mark Adler complained to a Jewish newspaper that anonymous sources were trying to “pit one supporter of Israel against another” given the reports of his barring Irwin Cotler from his event in Israel. Because the problem was that someone told the media and not that he barred Cotler?
Energy economist Andrew Leach looks at the underlying assumptions when people talk about the supply cost of oil, and how that should more properly be deployed when speaking about the oil sands.
And Andrew Coyne tears a strip off of Chrysler for demanding that $700 million that they apparently didn’t need when it became too much of a political issue, as well as the politicians who continue to hand over money to businesses like them so that they can take credit for any jobs that are created, whether the money was needed or not.