It was a day of juvenile finger-pointing as the big headline from the Globe and Mail was that the Ethics Commissioner said that she plans to speak to Justin Trudeau and Bill Blair about allegations that certain fundraisers may have breached conflict of interest laws, based entirely on innuendo from the Globe (which then gets repeated in Question Period, and that gets written up, and when the Globe adds another new piece of unproven innuendo the next morning, the cycle starts over again). Trudeau’s response? Bring it on – I’ve done nothing wrong.

So where are we? Because I’m not sure at this point. Do we insist that the PM and ministers no longer fundraise? Because that’s happening is that the party is capitalising on their “celebrity” for higher-level fundraisers, which is basic economics. They’re more in demand, so you send them to the higher-priced fundraisers. Should they be disallowed because someone would try to talk to them about their particular hobby-horses? As though they wouldn’t if they met them in the grocery store or on the street? Because I’m not sure that it’s actually lobbying activity, despite the label that has been slapped onto it by the bulk of the media and the opposition, looking to score some points on this. Does this mean that the whole of cabinet should be encased in these bubbles where nobody can talk to them? If the fear is that they get “exclusive” access, the government is quick to point out that they’ve accused of consulting too much and that there are plenty of other opportunities. If the worry is that it’s because they’re rich that they get access, again I’m not seeing the issue because you’re not buying influence for $1500. “Oh, you’re buying good feeling and they’ll think to pick up the phone and call you the next time something comes up” is the latest excuse I’ve heard, and I rolled my eyes so hard that it almost hurt. Honestly? Especially with the accusations that they’re buying the influence of “good feelings” donating to the Trudeau Foundation, which the PM severed his connections to and which provides scholarships? And if the charge is that because many of these rich business people are of Chinese descent, again, I’m not actually seeing any real issue here. They accuse one businessman of donating who had interests in canola that the Chinese government restricting and then Trudeau got it resolved. Conspiracy! Err, except that was the concern of every single gods damned canola farmer in this country so singling out one Chinese-Canadian starts to smack of veiled racist sentiment.

Once again, I’m waiting for someone to show me where there’s smoke, let alone fire. I mean, other than that sickening smell of people who’ve lit their own hair on fire over this. And I would be willing to bet that Mary Dawson is going to shrug and say “they haven’t broken any rules, but I want you to turn over more power to me” like she does all the time.

Good reads:

• Justin Trudeau met with Indigenous leaders yesterday and announced a permanent Reconciliation Council, more annual meetings and funding to address issues.
• Trudeau spoke to the Guardian about channelling populist anti-globalist sentiment into more constructive ways at a time when it’s on the rise.
• The PM is talking Bombardier again, but says they have a different request this time, so maybe we’ll see something before the budget.
• Here is some much-needed perspective on everyone worrying that Syrian refugees don’t have jobs yet after a year in Canada.
• A full asbestos ban was announced yesterday.
• Two Liberal MPs are joining in the howling about allowing US broadcasts of the Superbowl (including the ads) in Canada without simultaneous substitution.
• China enlisted Canada’s help in crafting its domestic abuse law, a process that began when John Baird was foreign minister.
• An historian has discovered records detailing massive RCMP wiretapping without court oversight during the Korean War.
• Maclean’s got some social media metrics about selfies…and then expanded the definition so as to be useless. So here are metrics of MPs who tweet photos.
• It’s a list of top and least-spending MPs, but the information is contextualised to some extent, so I’ll let this one pass.
• Erin O’Toole came out with some agricultural policy which is at least partly contradictory because you can’t want both Supply Management and more trade.
• Impaired driving stats have been in precipitous decline for decades, but Steven Blaney is trying to fundraise off of the fear of impaired drivers.
• Chantal Hébert looks at the year for women in politics.
• Ashley Csanady heaps the perfect amount of scorn on the Parliamentary porn study motion being passed by all MPs.

Odds and ends:

The national anthem bill has passed committee in the Senate, but it won’t get passed until the New Year.

Senator Peter Harder commissioned the Parliamentary Poet-Laureate for a poem about Senate modernisation. It’s…yeah.

For iPolitics, I covered the Liberals’ big holiday party.

Or in GIF form… pic.twitter.com/H8PQDApBaf

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) December 15, 2016