There is a vote coming up on Monday, when Parliament returns from the constituency week, which is on the Conservatives’ Supply Day motion to allot the opposition an additional three Supply Days, which the Conservatives are trying to spin as a “lesson” for the Liberals, because they apparently haven’t gotten the memo that it’s a hung Parliament. Also, the Conservatives’ feelings are hurt that their previous Supply Day was moved from a Thursday to a Friday, and they feel like it was being done as “punishment.” Never mind that the rules allow the government to allot a certain number of Supply Days to Wednesdays and Fridays (which are half days), and every government has monkeyed around with Supply Days in the past – most especially the Conservatives.

To that end, I find it particularly galling that Candice Bergen thinks that the Liberals need to take some lessons in humility because it’s a hung parliament, considering how the Conservatives behaved during the minority years. Humility? Conciliatory note? Nope. It was daring the opposition, declaring non-money bills (some of them in the Senate) to be confidence measures, screwing over the other parties by changing the federal rules governing spending limits on leadership campaigns while the Liberals were in the middle of theirs, and it culminated in a finding that the government was in contempt of parliament because of how they were withholding information that parliamentarians had a right to see.

Meanwhile, I would also issue the warning that this kind of stunt, which will further limit the government’s available calendar, will inevitably wind up with the government needing to use time allocation or other similar measures in order to pass time-sensitive legislation. Bergan may think she’s being clever by using these kinds of tactics, but this kind of thing always blows up in someone’s face, and nobody wins in the end.

Good reads:

• It sounds like COVID-19 and the impact of the rail blockades will be up for discussion at next week’s First Ministers meeting.
• Bill Morneau says the government is looking to provide financial help to those Canadians who have to quarantine themselves because of COVID-19.
• Morneau is also pointing to contingencies that will be in the upcoming budget to help the economy in case of deeper economic impacts of COVID-19.
• There are concerns that Canadian hospitals won’t be able to cope with an influx of COVID-19 cases, and they are doing their best to prepare.
• Poor winter road conditions mean that it may be challenging for the government to meet its timelines for eliminating drinking water advisories on remote First Nations.
• The government won’t commit to timelines to update federal privacy legislation, and the opposition says they haven’t been consulted like Bains says he has.
• Treasury Board has chosen SAP Canada to test a replacement for the gong show known as the Phoenix pay system.
• Oil prices continue to plummet as COVID-19 drives down demand, which is putting an even bigger hole in Alberta’s budget. (Seriously – look at this).
• Peter MacKay is getting precious about his “stinking albatross” comments, and saying it’s not his fault that people didn’t interpret them correctly.
• Here’s an interview with Marilyn Gladu, who says the party doesn’t need to move further to the right at the cost of alienating the electorate.
• Here’s an interview with Northwest Territories premier Caroline Cochrane, currently the only female premier in Canada.
• Kevin Carmichael notes the strong job numbers that came out yesterday, and what they indicate for the resiliency of the Canadian economy.
• Colby Cosh considers the Alberta panel on safe injection sites.
• Chris Selley points out that there is far more ideological diversity in the US Democratic primary than the Conservative leadership race, and that is a problem.
• My weekend column wonders if there is any intellectual heft in the Conservative leadership race, because nobody is articulating a single new idea.

Odds and ends:

CSIS has tips for business travellers to foreign countries about watching out for spies, honey traps, and undercover agents posing as cab drivers.

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