The NDP are trying to open yet another Hill branch office, but this time in Saskatchewan – where they don’t have any MPs. In other words, trying to claim that it’s for parliamentary work is utter bunk. And “outreach officer” is not a Hill staffer position, by the way. When they claim that they need to be in touch with all Canadians, that’s not the job of Hill staffers – that’s the role of the local riding associations. Their associations are supposed to be the interlocutors between the local communities and the parliamentary party and caucus, a model that is ever weakening in the age of instamembers for leadership votes, and power centralized in leaders’ offices. That the NDP are trying to knock down those barriers between party work and Hill work is another worrying trend about the level of centralization that they are employing.

Perhaps if there is justification for these outreach offices, it’s because Thomas Mulcair still remains an unknown for many Canadians. On his stop in Amherstburg, most of the people asked by the local paper couldn’t identify who Mulcair was. That can’t be good.

The Supreme Court has struck down the retroactive portions of the government’s law to void early parole provisions for white-collar criminals, saying that it amounts to double punishment. Of course, the government was warned the whole time that this law was going to be unconstitutional, but they wanted to blaze ahead to pay lip service to victims’ rights. In response to the Court’s ruling, Public Safety Minister Stephen Blaney put out a statement that blasted Justin Trudeau. No, seriously. Because there is nothing that they won’t make partisan hay out of.

Despite government lawyers arguing that there is no social contract for veterans, Julian Fantino is saying that there is. Um, so which is it? Is there an obligation – meaning that the government needs to take care of these veterans in a better manner than they have been under the New Veterans Charter – or there isn’t, and they can argue against any additional undertakings in court?

New integrity rules are now in place by the government to bar those companies who have been convicted of wrongdoing from getting government contracts, and those rules will bind their subcontractors as well. And while the opposition critics say it’s a good move, there are questions as to the exemptions being listed in the legislation.

While the mission in Afghanistan is officially over, we’re still sending over a number of troops to protect our embassy in Kabul to rotate the troops that are still there.

A law passed in 2012 has allowed the Courts to order Iranian bank accounts in Canada and non-embassy property held by their government to be liquidated to compensate families suing them for deaths at the hands of the Iranian government.

The NDP have shuffled up some of their critic portfolios now that Olivia Chow has resigned. Despite their constant crowing about having a woman as finance critic, Peggy Nash is now out of that job, and Nathan Cullen is taking it over, turning over the job of House leader (and its salary boost) to Peter Julian.

The Trinity Spadina file for the Liberals remains a thorn in their side as the riding association sent out a letter to the media to protest the blocking of the green light for potential candidate Christine Innes, and demanded an emergency meeting with leader Justin Trudeau. The party’s election readiness chair finds the letter curious because none of the issues raised in it were part of his discussion with the riding president when the decision was made, which makes me wonder if a) the letter came from the president, and b) just how well Innes and her husband Tony Ianno stacked the Trinity Spadina riding association board with their supporters, as Ianno was the previous MP and Innes had run there the past two elections.

It was the first leadership debate in the Quebec election last night, and Paul Wells liveblogged the action here. Martin Patriquin says that the winner was Québec Solidaire’s François David, and that hurts Pauline Marois most of all.

With Alison Redford now out of the picture, there is already talk of seeing which federal MPs are interested in the job. While former minister Jim Prentice is always a favourite, it sounds like there is a lot of interest in trying to get Michelle Rempel to run for the job, though I’m not sure she’s interested in the job as she doesn’t have leadership ambitions.

I have a bonus column this week that expands on the reasons why Brent Rathgeber’s idea of making the Speaker an Officer of Parliament is a very bad idea.

And Ed the Sock and John Baird discuss foreign policy. Enjoy!