Well the House seems to be stuck on this 'in and out' election spending controversy plauging the Conservatives. To me, the most interesting bit is not the details of the scandles but the Bloc's reaction and the fallout of said reaction. Basicly, the Bloc tables a motion in the House this week declairing thier support for, and confidence in Elections Canada. Quite a snub of the nose at the Conservatives who are currently in court fighting Elections Canada's interpretation of election legislation. But the really interesting bit was how the vote went. The Liberals, NDP, and the Bloc all voted for the Bloc's motion, and the Conservatives voted against. Of course this means it passed.
So a seperatist party makes a show of it's confidence in a federal Elections Canada, and the current governing party votes against confidence in Elections Canada. Huh? Surely the Conservatives could have abstained and cited current legal precedings a reason. Assuming they absolutly couldn't epress support for Elections Canada due to a fight over a single piece of legislation. Seems to me there's a lot of states world wide who would love it if the biggest problem thier elections had was a dispute over whether spending on a partcular television ad should come from the federal or the provincial party coffers.
I must say that Pierre Poilievre (Parlimentary Secretary for the Treasury Board) has done a great job defending the government as they're relentlessly hasseled by all the opposition parties. I particularily enjoyed his reference of Elizabeth May as 'the Liberal candidate for Nova Center'. I chuckled.
Interesting movement on the front of equilization payments this week. TD bank predicts that within two years Ontario will be a recipient of equilization payments. Other sources have predicted that Newfoundland will be paying into equilization by Christmas. Newfoundland is rejoicing that for the first time in a long time it will be considered a 'have' province. Not only that but Stats Can has just realeased data showing Newfoundland as the province with the greatest economic growth (surpassing Alberta). Pundits are starting to be weary of possible changes to the equilization formula over the next couple of years. Seems that beacuse of a quirk in the formula, once Ontario starts reciving equilization payments, it may still be paying in at the same time. I hear that the last time this quirk develloped we ended up with the ten province forumal we use today.
Brenda Martin was returned to Canada today.
Starting in July passangers on Air Canada will have to pay an extra $25 to check a second bag.
Cubans can now legaly own cell phones. Rumors are that the laws prohibiting international travel for Cuban citizens may be the next to fall.
Gandalf has agreed to return for the upcoming movie The Hobbitt.
Looking forward to see John Cho make the jump from Harold (of Harold and Kumar) to Sulu (of the nest Star Trek movie).
I've finnished with 'Late Nights on Air'. Great book, I really enjoyed it. I wish I could travel to Yellowknife in the 70s. I've moved on to 'Island of the Seven Cities: Where the Chinese Settled when they Discovered North America'. The title, although overly large and cumbersome, says it all. The author belives that Cape Breton was settled by Chinese hundreds of years before it was discovered by European explorers. It will be taken with a grain of salt but should be interesting nonetheless.
