In an interesting turn of events, an unnamed senior government official was talking to The Canadian Press yesterday to refute statements that Jason Kenney had made over the weekend about the upcoming budget – more to the point, that there were more cuts on the way, and that indeed the $3 billion contingency reserve wouldn’t be used to balance the books. It’s curious for a number of reasons – that Kenney would apparently be freelancing and undercutting Joe Oliver (not that Oliver has done himself any favours with some of the answers he’s given the past few days), that these officials would go to these lengths to refute Kenney, and that they’re claiming there are no further cuts because we all know that any “surplus” the government was counting on came from a continued austerity programme, so the fact that they’re saying there won’t be further cuts is a bit hard to take – even if it’s technically that there are no cuts on top of those they have already planned. One wonders if it’s a signal as to current dividing lines in the caucus (and cabinet) around Kenney and his leadership ambitions, and any positioning that he’s engaging in before the election, so that if it doesn’t go well and Harper resigns afterward, that Kenney finds himself ready to swoop in. But like I said – it’s just speculation, which odd stories like this tend to generate. Funny that.

Good reads:

• Ruh-roh! Newfoundland and Labrador’s premier is ramping up his battle with Ottawa over CETA compensation by withdrawing support for the deal.
• Canadian Special Forces advise-and-assist operations took them close to the front lines in Iraq, where they returned fire when fired upon. Everybody panic about mission creep!
• Jordan Press talks to Senator Percy Mockler about his upbringing, and the Senate study on bees.
• Dean Del Mastro is apparently trying to challenge his guilty verdict, and possibly looking for an avenue of appeal.
• The Liberals are holding their caucus retreat in London, Ontario, which has suffered an economic downturn for at least the past decade, and hoping they have an economic message that resonates there.
• Economist Stephen Gordon cautions why you can’t just look at the crashing oil prices in GDP terms.
• What’s that? Anti-terror legislation won’t deal with the root causes of radicalisation? You don’t say!

Odds and ends:

NDP MP David Christopherson has married his long-time partner, Denise Doyle, after 15 years together.