Roundup: Contempt, tempers, and losing the plot

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Thomas Mulcair’s snide exchange with the Speaker during yesterday’s QP continues to resonate around Ottawa, with reminders that Scheer doesn’t currently have the powers to police the content of answers (MPs would have to agree to give him those powers), and musings about this kind of contempt of parliament and remonstrations about how this is what makes people cynical. And the worst part? That even over the Twitter Machine, Paul Calandra continues to play the part. It has also been noted, and I fully agree, that by losing his temper and going after the Speaker, Mulcair made the story about himself rather than Calandra and his utter nonsense.

Mulcair, meanwhile, is returning to some of the more socialist NDP rhetoric by calling corporations “freeloaders” and saying that they’re not “paying their fair share,” as though people don’t pay corporate taxes. Oh, wait…

The government continues to backtrack and equivocate on their commitment to fining railway companies who aren’t meeting their grain shipment quotas, and after first insisting that the “per day” was a typo, are now saying that it’s “per violation” which are reported weekly and not daily – never mind that the original Order in Council said per day, and weekly targets are pretty much nothing for the companies.

At the climate summit in New York, Leona Aglukkaq spoke about the political courage necessary to get a climate deal in Paris next year, and touted all of her governmetn’s achievements. The problem? That she spoke to pretty much an empty room. *sad trombone*

A new study on sex work in Canada, funding by the Canadian Institute of Health Research, shows that the vast majority of sex workers don’t see themselves as victims and 70 percent of them are satisfied with their jobs. This is in start contrast to the narrative that the government is pushing with their prostitution bill, which is predicated on the notion that all sex workers are victims, and which relies on stories about child exploitation and human trafficking, both of which are already crimes and which the bill has nothing to do with.

Suspended Senator Mike Duffy’s trial has now been scheduled for 41 days between April and June of next year, which pretty much shuts everyone musing about an early election to avoid the trial in the media.

Opposition MPs supporting Michael Chong’s Reform Act concern troll the “plight” of Conservative backbenchers whom they claim are suffering under Stephen Harper’s iron fist – as though their own parties don’t have any centralizing influence at all (the NDP being one of the worst parties under central control).

The Royal Canadian Navy may be considering buying or leasing a soon-to-be retired American supply ship to fill the gap led by the retirement of our own naval resupply vessels.

In case you were curious, the government has spent $20 million on media monitoring contracts since December 2012, and has more than 3300 communications staff across government, whose jobs seem to largely consist of delaying media requests until deadline and not providing answers other than what was already in the press release.

Netflix has refused to turn over subscriber information to the CRTC, possibly emboldened by the government declaring that they would protect them from a “tax.”

Economist Mike Moffatt looks at the Liberals’ proposed “New Hires Programme” of EI premium “holidays,” essentially recreating a 1996 programme, and shows that it is far less detrimental than the current Conservative tax credit.

After all of the problems with the Tabulator vote-counting machines, it has been declared that the Liberals won a majority government in New Brunswick, while the NDP lost their sole seat and the Greens won a provincial seat. (Apologies on the NDP mistake – I misread the one chart). Both the NDP and Progressive Conservative leaders have resigned their leadership positions, though former PC leader David Alward will retain his seat.

It’s official – Seamus O’Reagan is now the Liberal candidate in St. John’s South–Mount Pearl. O’Reagan was unopposed, as his would-be competitors dropped out when he declared his interest in contesting the nomination.

Justin Trudeau has declared that he won’t take any questions from Sun Media reporters until QMI takes action against Ezra Levant for his comments about Trudeau’s parents last week (among other things referring to them as “sluts”).

And here are some photos of the West Block restoration.