Harper is back from China, and it’s all
talk about possible future free-trade agreements and pandas. Not that everyone
is convinced about how successful the trip was, and how much of it
was just photo ops to cap off deals that had long-since been negotiated. Or that this “historic” trip might actually have been achieved six years ago if Harper hadn’t thumbed his nose at the Chinese when he came into office.
Meanwhile, here’s an amusing piece on why
Harper would fit in very well with the way politics – and media – is done in
China.
What’s that? Senior bureaucrats are racking
up big travel tabs in the “age of austerity”? You don’t say! You know what
might help? Streamlining travel approvals so that they’re not always made
last-minute (which drives up the costs) and reexamining the current standing offer
for travel providers, considering that they are often more expensive than
public servants finding travel deals on their own.
There’s been another case of a veteran’s
personal record being improperly accessed in a campaign of harassment and
intimidation – this time against a member of the Veterans Review and Appeal
Board.
NDP MP Ryan Cleary stands behind the
Quebec-bashing he did when he was a columnist, as he now backs Thomas Mulcair
for the leadership. Apparently he was just being sensationalist and it was the
Quebec government that was the problem, not Quebeckers. Okay, then.
Up today: Gilles Duceppe is back on
Parliament Hill, but today he’s here to answer questions about his spending
practices during his time in office.
Why you can trust Xtra
