The spring sitting of Parliament is almost at its end, and it’s a bit of a race to see what is left to be passed – other than the cannabis bill, of course. It’s looking increasingly unlikely that the elections bill will clear the Commons, let alone even begin study in the Senate before they rise, and it’s just one of several agenda items that this government is having a hard time pushing through – not that the opposition has made any of this easy for them (not that it’s their job to), particularly as several sitting days have been lost to procedural shenanigans including the vote-a-thon tantrum last week. But down the hall in the Senate, there were a few quirky things that happened last week, in which both the budget implementation bill and the impaired driving bill got passed prematurely, entirely by accident.

As I understand it, according to my Senate sources, the intent was that the Conservatives had meant to ask for leave to deal with the report from the national finance committee on C-74, and then start third reading at the same time, but the Senator moving the motion got confused and inadvertently requested the vote for third reading happen immediately, and because everyone thought they were dealing with the report, they agreed. Oops. Several senators had been looking for amendments to C-74 at third reading – in one case, around trying to get propane and natural gas as legislated exemptions as farm fuels to the carbon tax backstop legislation included in the bill, but that didn’t happen. (Senator Robert Black later used the procedural manoeuvre of speaking in reply to the Speech from the Throne to get his concerns about C-74 on the record).

Likewise, with C-46, the impaired driving bill, the general disorganization in the Chamber had it passed on division (a particular kind of voice vote) rather than a standing vote, but that’s a bill that I suspect we’ll see pushback from in the Senate if the government insists on the clause on random alcohol screening, given the overwhelming weight of expert testimony against the provision, so any back-and-forth between the chambers will be around that, and you can guarantee that we’ll see the threats that making the Commons sit longer than Friday will cost so many thousands of dollars to Canadians, and wouldn’t that be just terrible, and we’ll all roll our eyes because the inherent cynicism that MPs shouldn’t sit longer to debate necessary legislation is a little bit offensive when you think about it for half a second. So will MPs be going home for the summer by Friday? I guess we’ll see who digs their heels in.

Good reads:

• If you recall delays the PM’s plane suffered on the India trip, it was because of a faulty engine light. But hey, let’s not replace these aging planes because optics.
• Bill Blair says that if the cannabis legislation passes this week (as it should), it will be legal by September.
• A Scotiabank report says that an all-out trade war could plunge North America into recession. Wheeee!
• The World Refugee Council is asking the Canadian government to use funds frozen from corrupt leaders toward refugees.
• Parks Canada’s Historical Sites and Monuments Board continues to deny a bronze plaque dedicated to the life of actor and broadcaster Lorne Greene.
• All three northern territories are looking to start their own universities.
• Éric Grenier previews today’s by-election in Saguenay.

Odds and ends:

The prime minister’s other official residence at Harrington Lake got some upgrades, but Trudeau paid for a new sauna there himself.

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