Being sore winners

The nasty dickishness of the Harper
government continues to know no bounds. After QP yesterday, Jason Kenney stood
up to deliver a tribute to Václav Havel, the former Czech president and free
speech activist. Also making tributes were Hélène Laverdière and Bob Rae. But
when Elizabeth May asked to make a statement of her own, she was denied
permission, and one of the Conservatives who voiced the denial was Peter Van
Loan. (May later posted her planned statement here.) And a bit of a storm erupted. Van Loan ducked behind a weak excuse of “official parties” and so

on, but seriously? It was a completely dickish move, just like not letting her
make a statement for Remembrance Day. It defies logic and makes the Conservatives
look mean-spirited, and I have yet to see any evidence to the contrary.
Seriously, guys? Grow up. Stop being such sore winners.

Conservative MP Stephen Woodworth held a press conference yesterday morning in an attempt to restart the debate on
abortion by challenging the legal definition of “human being.” He wants to use
“science” to talk about when life begins – but for as much as he wants to have
a “discussion,” he was all about dictating terms and haranguing reporters
present about their duty to truth. Kady O’Malley tells us what craziness went
down here.

Here’s a look at the delegations to China
accompanying Harper. Alice Wong’s delegation includes a bunch of rightwing
Christian ministers who oppose gay rights. Not on the trip was the Epoch Times reporter from the press gallery, who was denied a visa.

The New Democrats are looking to try to change the standing orders to limit the use of time allocation and the ability to send
committees in camera. And with the Conservatives in majority, I wish them good
luck with that.

NDP MP Joe Comartin argues that it would cost
more to try to reform MP pensions than it would to just leave them be.

Michael Petrou at Maclean’s looks at the ways in which DFAIT and CIDA are failing in

our commitment to promote democracy, especially in light of the Arab Spring.

Over in the National Post, Andrew Coyne debunks all the narratives around
the Electro-Motive Diesel/Caterpillar plant closure in London, Ontario.

A study out of the University of Toronto says
that the current equalization formula between provinces is unconstitutional as
it stands.

The by-election in Toronto-Danforth was postponed by a week on account of an “administrative error.” It will really be
held on March 19.

And NDP MP Rathika Sitsabaiesan thinks that
Canada has a population of nine million. Seriously. Oi.