US and UK officials are preparing a joint order to inspect all of the engines on the current F-35 fleet after one of them caught fire in Florida earlier this week, which prompted the fleet to be grounded. Why is this significant – other than the constant assurances that this is the most technologically advanced fighter but it can’t seem to get anything right? Well, it’s only got one engine. And when asked why this would be suitable for Canada, with its vast Arctic and coastal patrol ranges, where having a second engine is a pretty useful thing in case one fails, Peter MacKay bluntly said that the F-35 engine wouldn’t fail, and left it at that. Well, now it looks like they indeed have failed. Oops. Perhaps cabinet should take this fact into consider as they weigh the options analysis.

In the wake of their by-election defeats the NDP say that they need to focus on Harper and not the Liberals, and that includes focusing on the “kitchen-table” issues of gas prices, ATM fees and transit. Um, okay. But last time I checked, the government doesn’t set gas prices, their plans for ATM fees wouldn’t touch the private machines for which there are actual concerns (including money laundering by organized crime), and transit is a problem that is as much tied to the fact that we’re doing nothing to halt the growth of suburban sprawl, rather than just tossing more money at the problem. But hey, those kinds of simplistic, populist measures are what they believe will win them the next election.

Laura Payton crunches the numbers to see that under the Conservatives there have indeed been fewer women appointed to the heads of Crown corporations, federal boards and agencies as compared to when the Liberals were in charge. In other words, it’s not just judges that we are seeing an issue when it comes to appointments not being made on a more gender-equitable basis. The NDP say that gender quotas should be instituted to change this, while the Liberals haven’t made this commitment (though one Senate Liberal is working on a bill that would see this happen). When confronted with this drop in appointments, Kellie Leitch blamed varying term lengths, which seems totally like a concrete solution to correcting the gender imbalance at the top.

The government’s programmes to help bolster Aboriginal recruitment in the military are well received, but translate little in the way of actual enrolment, which has some worried that the government will cut their recruitment targets as opposed to trying harder to meet them.

The decision to permanently ground two Challenger jets is leaving the military scrambling to figure out how it will balance VIP flights (being as people like the PM can’t take commercial flights for security reasons) along with the need to use those planes for things like emergency medevac missions. Because they’re not just for ferrying ministers and dignitaries around.

Rebranding the Museum of Civilization as the Museum of Canadian History will wind up costing half a million dollars in rebranding alone.

A previously secret US government memo on CIA drone killings has accidentally blown away the whole legal rationale for the way in which that government prosecuted Omar Khadr for war crimes. Oops.

The Dean Del Mastro trial resumed yesterday, and the defence lawyers were trying to poke holes in the credibility of the Crown’s key witness, though the judge did at one point warn them that their questions were veering to a place where nobody’s memory could expect to recall details.

A would-be NDP candidate in BC has gone public about his nomination being blocked by the federal party, because he once spoke up on behalf of his father – a former MP – who was being detained by Israeli forces for being part of a humanitarian mission that was running an Israeli blockade. Just something to remember when the NDP chide Trudeau about his open nomination promises.

Michaëlle Jean is looking to become the next secretary general of la Francophonie, and as such is defending it, despite the accusations that they are not doing enough to promote democracy and are shielding dictators in many African countries. Jean says that there has been a lot of improvement, and that many of these countries look to Canada as a model to emulate.

Mohamed Fahmy’s family said that his state of mind is deteriorating following the conviction in an Egyptian court, as they continue to wait for news from the Canadian government’s diplomatic overtures.

And Andrew Coyne writes about the pointlessness of the history wars and all of the false dichotomies in which the Conservatives and Liberals/NDP have been engaged in, while James Bowden recounts how Dominion Day became “Canada Day” by unconstitutional means, thus turning a celebration of historical significance into a banality.