Ruh-roh! Word out of Brussels is that Germany is poised to cancel the Canada-EU trade agreement because they don’t like the investor-state protections clauses, believing that they impact on national sovereignty. Things are still being hammered out, and the government’s only response is that negotiations are continuing, but if this deal fails, that’s going to really deflate Stephen Harper’s boasts, along with the softening jobs numbers and continual reminders of scandals of his own making.

In response to the Ukrainian ambassador’s frustrations over Canada’s promised aid dollars not having been rolled out, John Baird says that we’re negotiating it with the IMF, and that we’re not just going to write a blank cheque. Okay then.

Here is the sad tale of the quiet demise of the Therese Casgrain Volunteer Award, started in 1982, and how it was killed in favour of the new Prime Minister’s Volunteer Award, which has so far seen resistance from people because they don’t want to be politically associated with such an award (and why awards in this country come from the GG as the Queen is the fount of honours in our system).

Former PMO spokesman Andrew MacDougall pens a somewhat bizarre and meandering column about being a team player and sometimes having to defend the indefensible because politicians aren’t perfect and he wasn’t elected so he has to do what they say, and isn’t everyone else in their ivory towers so ignorant of political realities. Except that a) everyone, including ivory tower academics, understands that there are electoral realities, and b) the times when journalists were going “you don’t really believe that” had to do with a lot more egregious things than Supply Management. You know, things like the long form census, or any number of other completely bizarre things that this government has tried to peddle to the public that no rational person could actually deliver with a straight face, and yet MacDougall did because he’s a “team player.” It also seems to confirm that there’s nobody in that office who is willing to speak any truth to power, which should be concerning.

In slow weekend news, Laureen Harper was stung by a bee when visiting the Toronto Royal York’s beehive on Sunday, but it didn’t faze her.

And Scott Feschuk takes note of Stephen Harper saying that “his people” wanted him to say mean things about Justin Trudeau at his Stampede Speech, and wonders about all of the other things that “his people” make him say.