In the aftermath of Jack’s passing

The death of Jack Layton has pretty much
consumed the political sphere. While the volume of material out there is
overwhelming, a few things that I took particular note of included the following:

The government has taken the populist Princess
Diana precedent and is going against protocol to give Layton a state funeral.

Here is a look at Layton’s passing in the context of Canadian parliamentary history. The last opposition leader
to die while in office was Sir Wilfrid Laurier (after he lost the election as prime minister).

Here is a video of Libby Davies talking
to The Canadian Press about Layton’s
passing.

Elsewhere, Leona Aglukkaq says the 2014
health accords will have a major focus on accountability. As though her government understands the term.

Harper is “consulting with allies” on the
future of our mission in Libya, which I trust means that we’ll do
whatever the Americans are doing.

The government procurement watchdog says
that many suppliers who have bad experiences with government contracts suck
it up for fear of losing those contracts – which means that problems then end up not being addressed.

And the outgoing Senate ethics officer,
Jean Fournier, has sent a scathing note to the NDP’s ethics critic, Charlie
Angus, for the open letter that he sent about the apparent state of Senate ethics. Fournier
not only lays out the numerous factual errors in Angus’s letter, but also
points out that Angus’s accusations come from a partisan motivation, which he (rightfully)
calls distasteful. And he has a very good point – one chamber trying to
undermine another does no favours for good governance.