Parliament Hill was in shock yesterday when news came down just minutes before Question Period was due to begin – former finance minister Jim Flaherty had died of a heart attack, three weeks after he left cabinet. A flurry of conferencing on the floor between Thomas Mulcair, Peter Van Loan, Ralph Goodale and eventually Elizabeth May erupted, and a decision was relayed to the Speaker. At the end of Members’ Statements, Scheer declared the House suspended, and opposition MPs streamed across the floor to console the Conservatives on the other side of the chamber. A few minutes later, Scheer announced that the House would stand adjourned for the remainder of the day. Harper was meeting with the President of Peru at the time, and was supposed to be holding a press conference at that time (counter-programmed against QP, for the record). Instead, the caucus filed into the Reading Room, and Harper gave a short statement, Laureen Harper standing next to him, dabbing her eyes with a Kleenex, and that was it. The doors were closed and the party mourned in private.

Flaherty was remembered by his Ottawa neighbours as being a nice guy. A timeline of his life and career is here, along with a look at his life and legacy, which includes a commitment to working on disability issues. Maclean’s has a photo gallery of Flaherty’s life. Michael Den Tandt writes about how Flaherty transformed from an ideological pit bull and brawler in the Ontario cabinet, to a moderate, genial statesman in Ottawa. Economists Stephen Gordon and Kevin Milligan recall Flaherty’s leadership during the 2008 global financial crisis. John Geddes recalls some of Flaherty’s more unguarded moments. Paul Wells writes about the “little vortex of anarchy” that surrounded Flaherty in Harper’s government, a rare quality that will be missed.

The event that started the day off, however, was news that suspended Senator Patrick Brazeau had been arrested on assault charges, uttering threats and possession of cocaine. Shortly thereafter, it was revealed that his girlfriend had kicked him out of the house and his stuff was strewn across the snow-covered lawn. Brazeau later made an appearance at the courthouse in Gatineau, and would be spending the night in jail. He may not get out of jail either, as he has also been charged with breaching his bail conditions. Stephen Maher writes about the sad scene and Brazeau’s continuing downward spiral.

In Fair Elections Act news, Laurie Hawn stuck by his tales of voter fraud and the tenacity of said fraudsters during elections, while Brent Rathgeber and former independent MP Bill Casey spoke about how the bill continues making it almost impossible for people running as independents. EKOS president Frank Graves says that it’s hardly surprising that people aren’t getting worked up about the bill because 40 percent of them don’t vote as a general rule anyway.

The Information Commissioner has uncovered evidence of three Conservative staffers systematically interfering with Access to Information requests, and is suggesting that the police are brought in. The problem is that she can’t call them in herself, and Diane Finley, the current minister of the department in which the interference happened, won’t, so these staffers will likely get off.

The First Nations education bill has been tabled, and Minister Bernard Valcourt says that all of the five conditions that the Assembly of First Nations asked for are included, which National Chief Shawn Atleo confirmed. Not everyone is happy however, and one particularly clueless chief wants a judicial review of the bill to stop it from going forward. Erm, except that the bill hasn’t passed, so there’s no actual law for the courts to review, and Parliament is the master of its own destiny, and privilege protects it from such court actions. It’s not the Court’s job to interfere with the parliamentary process. The suggestion makes as little sense as asking the Queen to step in because you lost at politics.

The Parliamentary Budget Officer delivered a report that said that the costs for remediating contaminated sites will be some $2 billion more than current government figures based on a better methodology than the government uses, which echoes earlier concerns by the Environment Commissioner.

It looks like the government will start needing to lay out cash next year if they want F-35 fighter jets on schedule – assuming that they still want them, but since they’re putting off that decision until after the next election, it raises questions as to what the government will do, and if they’ll accept the delays or pay out regardless.

Joe Oliver is off to Washington DC, for meetings with the IMF, the World Bank, and the G20 finance ministers – his first meeting of this magnitude, and the first this group has had without Jim Flaherty’s presence in eight years.

The loss of revenue at CBC due to the loss of Hockey Night In Canada means that they will be cutting 657 jobs – outright layoffs and not buyout packages – and they would heretofore stop bidding on professional sports programming, along with cutting back and consolidating regional programming.

And this is the weekend of the Calgary Signal Hill nomination vote between Rob Anders and Ron Liepert. The video accompanying the piece showcases the stark contrast between the two. And look at Anders claiming ownership on all of those tax cuts! It was all him, apparently.