Parliament is back today, and to set the stage, Stephen Harper delivered a speech to supporters in Ottawa to announce that he would balance the budget, deliver new anti-terror legislation by Friday, and generally set the pre-election stage that this sitting is going to consist of. Because if there’s anything Canadians are really looking forward to, it’s a nine-month-long campaign. Meanwhile, can someone please point out to me where exactly a Liberal government dramatically hiked taxes, as Harper claimed? Because I’m drawing a blank on that one.
Good reads:
- That new promised anti-terror legislation has civil liberties groups nervous, because it seems to be aimed at lowering thresholds, which is a fraught proposition.
- It looks like we can also look forward to useless and gimmicky balanced budget legislation, because we need more unnecessary laws on our books.
- Jason Fekete gives a rundown of issues we can look forward to in this parliamentary sitting.
- Parties are still learning how to deal with hateful and offensive comments posted to their Facebook pages.
Odds and ends:
Veteran BC NDP MLA Jenny Kwan wants to run in Vancouver East, and former CBC host Jo-Ann Roberts wants to run for the Green Party in Victoria.
Here is the interesting tale of a Mountie who is turning his hand to writing crime thrillers.
#elxn42 Latest Candidate Counts: #CPC 194/338 (57% of slate) | #LPC 193 (57%) | #NDP 114 (34%) | #GPC 30 (9%) + 35oth pic.twitter.com/ZvHrRUOH5Z
— Pundits' Guide 🇨🇦 (@punditsguide) January 26, 2015