Another two are down, and one wonders how many more are still contemplating the plunge. It was announced on Friday that both Shelly Glover and Christian Paradis, middling cabinet ministers such as they are, weren’t going to run again. Glover indicated she was going to return to her policing career, while Paradis cited “personal reasons.” Both, as it happens, have had a number of brushes with the Ethics Commissioner, and it does make one wonder if that really was a common denominator in their rather abrupt decisions – that all of the attention being paid to the Duffy trial is forcing some of the players with in Conservative Party headquarters to try and scrub away as many of the potentially embarrassing messes as they can before the election happens, so that it can’t be used against them in the race to be purer than pure. The late date of these announcements is also a bit of a puzzle, given the ultimatums that Harper had previously given, so that he had an election-ready cabinet in place, and we saw a number of ministers make their departures then. Baird later dropped out entirely, but Glover and Paradis plan to finish out their terms, and thus the question remains as to whether or not their announcements mean yet another mini-shuffle, with just eight sitting weeks left? It also makes one wonder if there are any other ministers considering their futures now, and wondering if the time isn’t right to get out while the going is good – or if they are seeing writing on the wall, and would rather leave on their own terms rather than face defeat in what could be a brutal slog of an election. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Good reads:

• What’s that? The procurement process for new armoured vehicles has been bungled and delayed? You don’t say!
• The Commissioner overseeing CSE’s activities says he’s having a hard time keeping up with their growing and evolving role. Brent Rathgeber is calling for more oversight for the agency.
• A former CIA official says that there was plenty of objection within that agency to Maher Arar’s arrest, and rendition to Syria where he was then tortured.
• CSIS is setting up a network of “trusted partners” to share information on “terrorist travellers,” which has some people concerned about just who that covers.
• Here’s a look at where Justin Trudeau has been travelling lately, as an indication of possible election strategy.
• Susan Delacourt writes that our obsession with political expenses overshadows our need to be concerned about our democratic malaise.

Odds and ends:

A federal Crown prosecutor is looking to overturn a decision that is preventing her from seeking a party nomination (believed to be for the NDP).

Here is the Ottawa Citizen Gargoyle roundup of smaller stories from the week.

With the Duffy trial starting tomorrow, here’s a good primer on everything you need to know.