At the final (for real this time) press conference of the premiers in PEI, they announced that everyone was on board for a national energy strategy. What that all means is up in the air, but it’s nice to know that everyone’s aboard – especially Quebec, who is also joining in with the other province to start bulk-buying their prescription drugs. BC and Saskatchewan made a side deal about wine and spirits between their provinces, while Alberta and Nova Scotia signed a labour mobility agreement around apprenticeships and credentials recognition (giving rise to the question of whether they’re making it easier for Nova Scotia to lose its young workers). Paul Wells writes about the changed tone of the meeting now that the PQ presence was gone, and both Kathleen Wynne and Philippe Couillard both are secure in strong majority governments, while he also has conversations with four of those premiers. Andrew Coyne remains thoroughly unimpressed by the whole affair, and the inability of the premiers to make trade concessions while they demand money from Ottawa when they have the ability – and room – to raise their own taxes for what they need.

The government has announced plans to legislate to keep telecom companies from charging for paper copies of their bills, a move that the NDP are claiming victory for immediately, because they’re both playing the populist coin. It’s also curious that a “market forces” government is wielding the legislative hammer in this way.

The RCMP is putting in place a Countering Violent Extremism programme to help stop Canadians from being radicalized and heading off to places like Syria, and barring that, before some of them return to Canada after having been involved with extremist activities while abroad.

CFB Borden, north of Toronto, is slated to become a second federal data centre as part of the Shared Services consolidation programme, chosen for its secure location and proximity to existing power and telecommunications infrastructure.

Statistics Canada is exploring the notion of “virtual head counts” – essentially massive data mining – as a possible replacement of the traditional census. But if the complaint about the mandatory long-from census was that it was too intrusive, can you imagine the privacy implications of this kind of a programme? It would also mean constructing one very large new database that would be shared between the federal and provincial governments, and again, huge privacy implications there compared to our current dispersed records systems. Several European countries do it, but if that is this government’s goal, I don’t think it would consistent with the message they put out previously.

The government has passed some new regulations to restrict the RCMP’s ability to reclassify firearms that it feels should be restricted. It has been a summer of Conservatives tweeting pictures of themselves with guns at ranges and gun shows – almost like they feel they need to start burnishing that particular voter base.

Here’s a look at the humanitarian relief we’re sending to Iraq.

The outgoing Secretary General of NATO is calling on Canada to boost its defence spending as we enter into an era of more uncertainty. Of course, spending alone isn’t as good of a measure as how it’s spent, and considering how broken Canada’s procurement system is, more spending could still mean that we’d have a less-than-effective fighting force to contribute.

Stephen Harper has named former Senator Hugh Segal and former Scotiabank CEO Rick Waugh to head the Public Service Advisory Committee.

Julian Fantino pens a bizarre letter to the Windsor Star about Thomas Mulcair’s apparent lack of support for veterans, but he also ensures to get in a dig about Justin Trudeau and marijuana while he’s at it.

Kellie Leitch’s office accidentally sent out a version of her Labour Day message that talked about things like unpaid interns, before they sent a kill notice and an updated version that dropped the mention. Oops.

The Liberals and NDP have their candidates in place, and now there are two contenders for the Conservative nomination in the forthcoming Whitby–Oshawa by-election.

Economist Kevin Milligan looks at how a floating exchange rate like Canada’s changes the arguments for and against fiscal austerity.

Susan Delacourt goes full turnout nerd and demands mandatory voting, which the Liberals are quietly floating around as an idea in a caucus survey.

And Sonya Bell and Jessie Willms give a handy flowchart for reasons why the Prime Minister can’t call an inquiry into missing and murdered Aboriginal women.