The Canadian Army lowered the flag for the last time in Afghanistan, as our troops officially pull out of that country after our longest military engagement ever. Not that the job is really done, but we’re now turning it over to domestic security forces, as nascent as they are. Our ambassador says that Canada will remain engaged in the country and will help to rebuild their economy, and in particular their resource sector.

It turns out that the Conservatives didn’t like Elections Canada’s 2008 ad campaign, which depicted a smoggy world versus an evergreen one with the tag line “Vote. Shape your world.” Apparently in their minds, it must have seemed like a partisan endorsement of some kind, and it’s precisely the kind of advertising they’re looking to ban under the Fair Elections Act.

On his way back from South Korea, Stephen Harper stopped off in Vancouver to speak to the BC Chamber of Commerce about how great the deal is going to be, and take friendly questions from its chair. Because that’s what accountability looks like, apparently.

The Canadian military is concerned that they are getting squeezed out of the country’s cyber-defence, as the main hub is within Public Safety Canada and the Communications Security Establishment. Given that CSE is administered under National Defence, however, there are enough links that I’m not sure how the military would then feel pushed out other than the fact that they’re not taking the lead.

The Federal Identity Programme – the government’s branding exercise, which is tagged as making the government “visible, accessible and accountable” – faces constant challenges from government departments trying to distinguish themselves, but the government won’t release any details on which departments were granted exceptions to the FIP directives. Because that’s accountable!

On a somewhat related note, Canada is looking to Australia for guidance on a national branding programme for our products made here, much as Australia did with their “Australian Made” campaign with their green kangaroo logos. Product of Canada labelling doesn’t have any single logo or board controlling their use.

John Baird took to the Twitter Machine to answer people’s questions, which is Storify’d here. And let it be said that there were some pretty good exchanges, written by Baird in his own voice and not canned answers by staffers, so this kind of thing should be encouraged.

The Auditor General posted a Q&A on his website about his study of the Senate’s expenses, and stated that he won’t hesitate to turn over information on potential criminal misspending to the RCMP, even before his final report is prepared.

It looks like the Liberal Party is placing a ceiling of $100,000 of past leadership debt as the cut-off point for potential nomination candidates being green-lit. That means that Marc Garneau and Hedy Fry (who still has 2006 leadership debt to pay off) can still run, but failed challengers from 2013 like David Bertschi and Hot Republican Mess George Takach won’t be able to – especially as those two failed to stick below the debt ceiling the party imposed on the contest to prevent such problems from happening.

Bloc Québécois MPs are hoping that a PQ majority government would help to restore their own fortunes in Ottawa. Not everyone thinks that can happen, given how much work the Bloc needs to do to rebuild, and it doesn’t help when they push out their own members for not being ideologically correct (like they did with Maria Mourani, who has since renounced separatism altogether).

As expected, Olivia Chow has now resigned her seat, and will announce her id to become the new mayor of Toronto. Here is a list of her private members’ bills in the current parliament, which will likely fall off of the Order Paper, unless another MP picks them up, in order that they can continue to never see the light of day. Kady O’Malley reminds us that the coming by-election shouldn’t be used to predict the next election, as that riding will no longer exist as is because of riding redistribution.

The US Senate finally – finally! – confirmed Bruce Heyman as the new ambassador to Canada – only eight months later.

And Andrew Coyne makes light of Pauline Marois and her fantasy notion of a painless separation, where Quebec would somehow keep using Canada’s passports and currency with no repercussions at all. Only there would be massive fiscal repercussions from a shared currency, and Canada wouldn’t want an unstable partner in such a situation.