Former Chief Electoral Officer Jean-Pierre Kingsley appeared at committee yesterday to give testimony on the Fair Elections Act, and said that unless vouching was reinstated, he could neither support the bill, and said that it could be considered unconstitutional. He also took issue with the provisions that would limit the CEO’s communications with Canadians, that allow parties to contact past donors without counting it as an expense, and for putting the Commissioner of Elections under the eye of the Director of Public Prosecutions – but you know that Pierre Poilievre will only focus on the things that Kinsley liked about the bill. Canadian Dissensus gives a superlative takedown of the bill and Poilievre’s defence of it.

Conservative MP Laurie Hawn also came forward to say that he was offered hundreds of voter information cards picked up from apartment lobbies in the 2006 election – except that Elections Canada said that they weren’t accepted as a form of ID in that election, so they wouldn’t have been useful for any kind of voter fraud. Confronted with this fact, Hawn said that all would be revealed at his committee appearance.

The top issue in QP yesterday came from this story in iPolitics, that showed that one of the Conservatives’ top fundraisers took a number of flights with the PM aboard his Challenger jet, but repaid an amount that added up to a mere $260 per flight from Ottawa to Calgary. Trying to find a commercial flight for that price is pretty much impossible, so saying that he’s repaying fair market value is a pretty bogus excuse. This isn’t the first time that Harper has reimbursed economy fares for personal use of the Challenger jets, when his predecessor, Paul Martin, instead reimbursed double the business class fare for the same flight. That the Conservatives keep trying to say that they uses the Challengers less than the Liberals is a ridiculous distraction to the issue at hand.

Laura Stone has an exclusive interview with Justice Nadon, who is relieved to no longer be in limbo (especially after Stephen Harper finally spoke out and said that he would respect not only the letter but the spirit of the Supreme Court ruling). Nadon also sounded like he wasn’t too surprised by the ruling, and now he’s back on the Federal Court of Appeal. It has cost the government some $250,000 for this botched appointment – $80 thousand in legal fees, and another $152,000 for translation and other professional services.

What’s that? The Parliamentary Budget Officer isn’t finding any evidence of serious labour shortages or that dreaded “skills mismatch” in the country either? You don’t say! Jason Kenney won’t be derailed from his narrative, however, and said that theses shortages and mismatches exist in certain regions and employment sectors – really!

Apparently four staffers in the PMO work on those 24/Seven videos that nobody is watching. Talk about value for money.

The Interim Privacy Commissioner has completed her investigation of that lost student loan data at HRSDC, and not surprisingly finds that rules put into place weren’t followed. The department agreed with the Commissioner’s recommendations, but if they couldn’t be bothered to follow the rules the last time…

Oh dear – it seems that telecom companies have been turning over subscriber data to CBSA without warrants, which should be worrying. One can imagine that the Privacy Commissioner will want to look into this too.

Joe Oliver says that his and his wife’s investments aren’t a conflict-of-interest concern. And yes, the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner is looking over those investments now that Oliver is now in the top financial job in the country.

Conservative Senator Don Meredith says his expenses were appropriate and that he’s the victim of a smear campaign. Of course.

Around a quarter of the Senate’s 400 staffers will be eligible to retire in the next five years, which could be a way of trying to make their operations leaner. That said, given that those 400 include clerks, financial administrators, and Senate security, it doesn’t really seem like that big of a number.

Fire damage aboard HMCS Protecteur may have warped the deck and hull, making it that much less likely it’ll be repaired. There are also tales about deplorable accommodations that crew families were assigned in Pearl Harbour, which the navy denies.

Omar Khadr finally got surgery on his shoulder after it was shot and infected then not treated during his years in Guantanamo Bay. His eyesight still needs to be treated – he was partially blinded in the attack that he was captured in.

Trinity-Spadina and Calgary Signal Hill are not the only contentious nomination races underway. In Mississauga, sitting MP Eve Adams wants to move to the next riding over, where she actually lives, but that riding association doesn’t seem to want her there, and things are getting pretty heated – so much so that they had to call the cops to have Adams removed from a riding association meeting. And when an organizer objected to her trying to bigfoot the nomination, her fiancée – PMO staffer Dimitri Soudas – had said organizer fired. Yikes!

There is talk that the Liberals and NDP could be much more competitive in Alberta during the next election, especially now that boundary redistribution creates more actual urban ridings than the rurban ones that ringed both Edmonton and Calgary. Joan Crockatt says that because the Conservative nomination races are so hotly contested it means that Harper’s brand is still strong. Erm, as opposed to people being dissatisfied with the incumbents, maybe?

Alberta Conservative Senator Scott Tannas says that he’s mulling over a bid for the Progressive Conservative leadership in that province now that Alison Redford is out.

Toronto Life tells the story of the rise and fall of Nigel Wright, and provides a fairly coherent narrative timeline of the ClusterDuff affair as we currently understand it.

My column this week looks at why there are not interim first ministers – either premiers or Prime Ministers – in this country, and why the Reform Act may muddy the waters even more when it comes to our leadership system.

And Justin Trudeau says that he will be releasing a “candid” memoir in both English and French by the fall. It seems to me that the previous Liberal leader also released a book shortly before an election, not that I’m sure it helped his chances…