Roundup: Economic bluster

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The mood of the moment on the Hill is economic bluster in the light of falling oil prices and a delayed budget – not that there wasn’t some bluster around the Iraq mission to go around either. The NDP announced early on that they want an immediate fiscal update, the subject of today’s opposition day motion – along with the demand to create a budget that suits their particular terms, naturally. The government, however, spent the day playing as if nothing is really wrong. Sure, they’ve lost some manoeuvring room, but they insisted that they will a) balance the budget, b) deliver on all of their promises, and c) not make any more cuts, though one presumes that means any more cuts on top of the continued austerity programme that their whole “surplus” was built on. They can’t really explain how this will happen, other than to use the $3 billion contingency fund, to which Oliver has started talking about how it’s there to be spent and it’ll just go on the bottom line (i.e. national debt payments) otherwise. I will make the additional observations that the NDP were trying to roll the Target layoffs into their lamentations of economic doom and demands for a “jobs programme,” the Liberals were more focused on getting the actual figures for the hole in the budget that the drop in oil prices created and pointed out that Oliver has the information and wasn’t sharing it. It was a noticeable distinction.

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https://twitter.com/inklesspw/status/559804578800357376

Good reads:

  • The nastiness of Glenn Thibeault’s defection to the provincial Liberals is ratcheting up, as he alleges a lack of communication from the top-down as part of the trouble, while his former colleagues are merciless in their condemnation.
  • The Chief Justice has expressed her own concerns for the Victims of Communism memorial planned to go just outside of the Supreme Court, as well she should as it’s the wrong place for it.
  • Military police were starting an investigation into harassment of the ceremonial guards – including someone grabbing an unloaded gun – in advance of the shooting on October 22nd.
  • DND is looking to create new protective suits that are basically like stillsuits from Dune – Thumpers not included. Part of the issue will be intellectual property.
  • Dean Del Mastro’s new defence arguments could delay his sentencing.
  • My column this week looks at the likelihood of an increasingly empty Commons this spring.

Odds and ends:

At a pre-campaign speech here in Ottawa, Justin Trudeau tried to stake his territory with Ontario voters.

While the NDP have promised to restore CBC’s funding and the independence of its board, Stéphane Dion laid out the Liberal policy back in November, which goes beyond the NDP plan.

The head of CSE is now the new deputy minister of defence. The former head of CDIA, now defunct, takes over the CSE.

Here’s an interesting look at what legal marijuana might look like in Canada.