Roundup: Backtracking and disowning

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Having pretty much run out the parliamentary calendar for the year, Stephen Harper started dropping bombshells yesterday – some obvious, some subtle – as he answered questions in the Commons. The first was the more obvious one, that those long-promised oil and gas emissions regulations weren’t going to come anytime soon because the Americans weren’t onboard with them, and apparently it would be crazy – crazy! – to get a head start on them. It wasn’t a complete surprise, given that the Conservatives have mentioned needing a continental approach before, but the blanket refusal, wrapped up in this kind of “aww, shucks, I’m as disappointed as you guys – really!” approach, was what was new (and Paul Wells digs into that here). The other, more subtle bombshell, was Harper disowning the New Veterans Charter as he defended Julian Fantino’s disastrous handling of the Veterans Affairs file yesterday. As he was questioned about the government lawyers going to court to say that the “sacred obligation” to veterans was just political rhetoric, Harper shrugged it off saying that the New Veterans Charter at the centre of the legal dispute, which was implemented by his own government, was a “Liberal programme.” Nobody picked up on the significance of this disavowal during the remainder of QP enough to come back about it, and Harper won’t be in QP tomorrow either (nor will Trudeau or Mulcair for that fact), so there won’t be the ability to press him about just what he meant by it. And that’s probably how he wants it too as Parliament prepares to rise for the Christmas break.

Good reads:

  • Stephen Gordon writes a brilliant piece about how Harper has set things in motion so that his agenda will still be carried out even if he loses the next election.
  • Michael Den Tandt writes about the good optics but bad policy of the new price gap legislation.
  • The number of political staffers has increased under the Conservatives. You don’t say!
  • The former deputy commissioner for women at Corrections Canada is shocked that the government still hasn’t done anything from the Ashley Smith recommendations.
  • Intra-Sikh politics are spilling over into a Liberal nomination race in Vancouver South.
  • Media outlets are trying to get the courts to unseal court documents believed to contain information about information leaks from the PM’s RCMP protection detail.
  • The government is facing some unanticipated pushback on its sudden move to go overboard on fighting corruption abroad.
  • Changes in the Elections Act could make it easier to use a get-out-the-vote smartphone app developed by two Conservative MPs.

Odds and ends:

It looks like that monument to brutalist architecture known as the National Arts Centre may be getting a facelift.

Stephen Harper once again performed at the Conservative Xmas party, so everyone will swoon again about his singing and song choices.

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