The House of Commons comes back on Monday, in the new chamber in West Block, and with an election on the horizon. That means it will soon be a frantic scramble to get bills passed before June arrives, and there are a lot of constituency weeks between now and then. The count is sixty-nine sitting days officially left on the calendar, but from that you need to remove a prescribed number of opposition-controlled Supply Days, plus the budget. Add to that, more days will need to be subtracted for bills that the Senate will send back to the Commons – and there will be bills they will send back, and that will eat into the calendar – especially in the final days of the sitting in June, when everyone wants to go home.

The agenda still has a number of big items on it, with Bardish Chagger having identified their poverty reduction bill, the reform of the Divorce Act, and the bill to eliminate solitary confinement in federal penitentiaries – and that could prove the most difficult because there have already been judges weighing in on what they’ve read and they’re not impressed. That could set up for more back-and-forth from the Senate if they don’t make enough of the big fixes to that in the Commons sooner than later.

And the Senate really is going to wind up being the spoiler or the wildcard in all of this. They’re already underwater on their Order Paper, and the Chamber will be late in returning from the break because of the construction delays, and there has been very little movement from most of the committees on getting back up and running now, in order to make progress on the bills that are before them. (In one case, where the bill is highly contentious, the Conservatives have not been cooperating because the Independent senator who chairs the committee has basically been doing the bidding of the Government Leader in the Senate – err, “government representative,” Senator Peter Harder, so they wanted to send a message). The national security reform bill, sat at second reading for the entire fall sitting when it should have spent far more time at committee given how extensive and far-reaching the bill is. They need some serious adult supervision to get them back on track, and I’m not sure where that’s going to come from, so we’ll see how this plays out over the next few weeks.

Good reads:

• Justin Trudeau had another townhall, this time in Miramichi, where he warned against fear-mongering, which Andrew Scheer immediately accused him of doing.
• While in Québec City yesterday, Trudeau wasn’t making any promises relating to François Legault’s list of demands.
• Following the announcement of an arrest in Kingston relating to an alleged bomb plot, Andrew Scheer immediately blamed refugee screening.
• Scheer’s comments have community leaders in Kingston bracing for some kind of anti-Muslim “backlash” in response to the arrest.
• On his way back to China, John McCallum reiterated that it would be good for Canada if the US revoked their extradition request for Meng Wanzhou.
• Carolyn Bennett says the Indian Act is responsible for the gridlock with the pipeline project in Wet’suwet’un territory, which is why they are trying to transform it.
• Documents obtained by ATIP show some of the reasons why infrastructure money has been slow to flow, much of which is because of the paper burden necessary.
• With the number of airstrikes falling in the mission against ISIS in the Middle East, Canada is withdrawing its refuelling aircraft.
• Canadian forces in Mali provided medivac for more troops after a second attack this week.
• The Canadian Forces’ chief military judge will face a trial overseen by his deputy this summer in a case involving an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate.
• An Ottawa doctor treating diplomats stationed in Havana disputes the theory that they are affected by mass hysteria…but can’t point to what caused their symptoms.
• The recently appointed head of Invest Canada was forced to resign from other boards he sat on after he failed to disclose them. Way to go, PMO due diligence.
• The Conservatives are holding their caucus retreat this weekend, and insist that they’re sharpening their message about affordability.
• Svend Robinson says that Thomas Mulcair needs to stop talking about his successor (which I guess means he says Mulcair can’t do his new job as a pundit).
• In advance of the Alberta election, Rachel Notley has pledged no sales tax or a return to healthcare premiums.
• Roland Paris looks at the issue of China’s use of “hostage diplomacy” as one more sign of the assault on the rule of law, which includes recent Saudi actions.
• Chris Selley posits that Brexit has become a cautionary tale for politicians that like to promise the impossible.
• Selley also casts a critical eye at Jagmeet Singh’s proposals for affordable housing, both jurisdictionally and the kinds of “solutions” he’s peddling.
• Chantal Hébert notes that there may be unintended consequences to the fact that Justin Trudeau is far more present in the House of Commons than his predecessor.
• Andrew Coyne wonders if John McCallum hasn’t inadvertently tipped off a government strategy to pit the US against China with the Meng case.
• Colby Cosh asks some pertinent questions about the Court Challenges Programme, and why it’s doing the heavy lifting of Parliament.

Odds and ends:

Here’s a look at the propaganda being deployed against Canada in Chinese media.

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