Roundup: A threatening break-in

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Vandals broke into Justin Trudeau’s home in Ottawa on Friday night, while his family slept (he was in Winnipeg at the time). Said vandals also left a threatening note that warned them to keep their doors locked – sitting atop a pile of items including kitchen knives, with several other knives arranged around the house. Oh, and apparently the designation for a public figure to get RCMP protection is up to the minister of public safety, and he’s being a bit evasive on the topic. It’s not only worrying that somebody would take this step, but that there are a whole chattering class out there who is either mocking Trudeau because his family was in danger, or who believe that this is all staged. Michael Den Tandt calls out the social media reaction on both sides – those who mocked Trudeau, and those who pin the blame on Harper, and the fact that none of the opposition parties stop their own partisans from demonizing Harper over social media either. It’s all part of the same poisoned ecosystem.

Those three major doctors’ groups have pulled out of any plans to join the Health Canada “totally non-partisan” anti-pot ads because they cottoned onto the fact that it was a political football.

With both the Liberals holding their summer caucus retreat in Edmonton this week and the NDP there in a few more weeks, Joan Bryden talks to Stephen Carter about the opposition parties’ attempts to gain a foothold in that province beyond the single NDP seat they now have.

The Chair of the Transportation Safety Board is retiring after the final report on the Lac Mégantic disaster is tabled next week. She says she’s surprised by the amount of attention the incident generated, and that she’s optimistic that the government will take the recommendations positively and that we’ll see the needed changes to the system in the next couple of years.

The AFN is trying to decide what to do about BC Regional Chief Jody Wilson-Raybold, who is now a Liberal candidate and whose continued presence as regional chief could mean a conflict of interest, even though she intends to take a leave once electioneering starts happening in earnest.

The Canadian Forces’ plans to buy a fleet of unmanned aerial drones has been delayed because they can’t decide if they need one or two different kinds of fleets.

Manitoba continues to insist that Statistics Canada underestimated their population by 18,000, which could cost them $100 million in federal transfers. The federal government keeps telling them that it’s not the case.

The federal government was worried about a resurgence in Idle No More protests after the anti-fracking protests in New Brunswick.

Paul Wells interviews Justin Trudeau here, and while it’s nice to see a little more fleshing out of the policy bones and a maturity developing in his responses, there is a dangerous populist tone creeping in, especially about the whole “the middle class is struggling” narrative. Sure, there are segments of the middle class that are – particularly in certain regions of the country, and certain demographics – but for a party that keeps saying it’ll make policy on the basis of evidence, they’re relying an awful lot on feelings for this particular central plank.

Here’s an interesting long read about the First Nations in Northern BC, and about their opposition to the Northern Gateway pipeline going through their territories.

Philippe Lagassé looks at some of the potential problems in the legal wording of the Ontario Court of Appeal decision on the Oath to the Queen.

And those “accidental MPs” from the last election are starting to face the decision of whether or not they want to run again in the next election. At least one has decided not to, so we’ll see how many others follow suit.