Programming note: I really have nothing to offer on the situation in Paris, so I’ll leave that to those better suited to comment, which is better for all involved.

Look up there – it’s the Senate bat-signal, with news that we may have an idea what the new appointment process is likely to look like. According to the Citizen:

• An independent advisory body will be created that is composed of Canadians who are people of “stature” and who have public credibility. It will consider people who would be good senators and then refer the names to the prime minister, who keeps the ultimate authority (in accordance with the Constitution) to make the appointments.
• There will be a public input component to the process, so that Canadians have a way of recommending themselves, or others, as future senators.
• There will be a consultative role for the provinces, given that Trudeau wants the Senate to regain credibility as a representative of the regions.

If you said that this looks a fair bit like the vice-regal appointments committee, you’d be right, not that the article stated that anywhere. In fact, it went to great lengths to talk about what the House of Lords Appointments Commission in the UK, and meanders to the boneheaded suggestion by Greg Sorbara that we get members of the Order of Canada to choose senators. Also, nowhere in the piece does it seem to acknowledge that the new Canadian process could let these new senators chosen by an independent process choose which Senate caucus they want to sit in or remain independent, with a full understanding of the additional pressures that independent senators actually face. So while it’s good to get some more hints on what we’re likely to see, it might be great if we had reporters who could actually uses useful Canadian comparisons, and who actually understood how the Senate operates rather than engaging in more of the pointless speculation about the supposed chaos that we’re supposed to see in there in the brave new era.

Good reads:

• Trudeau released the mandate letters to his ministers. Analysis from Kady O’Malley and Paul Wells.
• More details on mandate letters here, including for ministers of defence, justice and public safety, immigration, Heritage, procurement, and Indigenous affairs.
• Trudeau addressed Canadian Forces personnel directly, saying they’ll better take care of them and get them the equipment they need.
• Our emissions targets going into the Paris summit are going to be the same ones the Conservatives committed to for the time being (but they’re the “floor”).
• A formal tanker ban on BC’s coast spells the end of the Northern Gateway project.
• After some confusing signals from the minister, it seems the veterans service centre in Sydney, NS, will re-open. (No message control, people!)
• The Duffy trial resumes next week, and that internal Senate audit on senators’ residences won’t be made public, the judge has ruled.
• Andrew Potter puts the Harper years into context with a look back at how they fit in with the infamous Firewall Letter.

Odds and ends:

Margaret Trudeau is available to speak at events for $5000 a pop. (And stop with this “First Grandma” nonsense).