Roundup: The Tabulator gong show

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Over in the New Brunswick election last night, their new Tabulator machines which were supposed to deliver election results faster all pretty much fried and turned into a big gong show, with missing ballots and unreadable results, while the company who was contracted out to run the machines didn’t answer calls. With no results being trustworthy, parties began demanding manual recounts, and with a virtual tie result, the final results likely won’t be clear in the morning. And so, let this once again be a lesson that paper ballots should always be used with manual counts because that’s the only tried and true way with actual accountability.

In advance of the climate summit in New York today, Leona Aglukkaq announced new vehicle emissions regulations that harmonise with American standards. Still no word on those oil and gas sector regulations years after they were announced.

Despite all of the government’s tough talk about revoking the passports of Canadians who are fighting abroad with radicals (which, incidentally, is a Crown prerogative that they have every right to exercise), they refuse to say how many they have seized or revoked since 2002. Instead, it’s more chest-beating and demands that Trudeau weigh in on the issue rather than be clear themselves about it. Way to lead the country, guys.

Stephen Harper signed a free trade agreement with the president of South Korea during her visit to Ottawa yesterday.

There is talk that the Parliamentary Budget Officer will be delegating the majority of his responsibilities to his deputy, which he says is about better synergy and focus.

Remember how the government was going to make rail companies pay $100,000 per day if they missed their grain quotas? Well, now they’re saying it’s $100,000 per week. Because you know – showing that they’re serious in the face of a duopoly.

Here is a look at the impact on capabilities and deployments that the loss of our two naval resupply vessels will have on our operations. Meanwhile, the RCAF is hiring some retired generals and senior department officials as mentors for General Staff who have identified “cognitive and social skills” gaps, which makes people wonder a) how those people got promoted to their current positions in the first place, and b) why this is a nice padding of the pensions of those retired officers at a time when there have been so many cuts across the department.

Our military signed an agreement with the militaries of the US, UK and Australia about sharing our space-related resources and data in the hopes of preventing orbital collisions, interference with signals, and the accuracy of GPS data.

The Canadian Medical Association Journal is calling on the government to treat 100 Gazan children in Canada, but the government continues to refuse.

A CBSA study says that electronic monitoring could be a useful and cost-effective alternative to detaining immigrants and refugee claimants.

Every time Kevin Sorensen stands up in QP and says that the CFIB likes their EI tax credit model and that the Liberals don’t understand small business, he should perhaps also mention that the CFIB also likes the Liberal “EI premium holiday” idea as well. Oops.

Peter Nowak writes about the political theatre that was the Netflix presentation at the CRTC television hearings.

Newly minted Alberta premier says labour policy and temporary foreign workers will be at the top of his list when he gets a chance to sit down with Stephen Harper. I’m sure Harper is just leaping at the chance to discuss those problem files.

NDP MP Charmaine Borg tried to offer the chance to say people’s names in Parliament in exchange for donations, which was a complete offence to democracy. She removed the reward incentive, but still. Seriously? I write more about the ethical problems inherent in this whole disastrous affair in my Loonie Politics column.

Liberal MP Mauril Bélanger is going to take another crack at making the national anthem gender-neutral, but this time using “in all of us command” rather than the original “thou dost in us command.”

And with an ISIS audio tape trying to warn that people in Western countries “won’t even feel safe in your bedrooms,” MP Michelle Rempel started “secure bedroom selfies” over the Twitter Machine as an act of defiance.