Well, maybe not tonight, but soon Parliamentarians will find seal meat in the Parliamentary restaurant, at the behest of several MPs and Senators. Because there’s nothing they can’t try to make political on the Hill.
During Question Period, Ignatieff was back – with his new chief of staff in place – and he led off the day with questions about climate change and the apparent abrogation of their responsibilities with coming up with a plan before the Copenhagen conference. John Baird gave the predictable lines about how great of a job they’re supposedly doing.
Gilles Duceppe asked about the sale of nuclear technology to India despite the fact that they haven’t signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. After Lisa Raitt gave a sales pitch for our great nuclear technology, Peter Kent talked about the progress India has made with non-proliferation. Libby Davies asked about what guarantees we were demanding for the sale of such technology. Kent reminded her that India was a “responsible democracy.” Um, okay.
Marcel Proulx was back on the background check into Senator Housakos – especially in the light of all those new allegations. John Baird reminded him of how great they were when it came to cleaning up campaign financing. (Incidentally, Housakos’ online biography has been altered yet again, in the light of those new allegations).
Sartorially speaking, it was a pretty meh day. I wasn’t entirely sold on Martha Hall Findlay’s rouched purple jacket, but among the very bad were the return of Chris Charlton’s bright yellow jacket, as well as what appeared to be a grey maternity smock worn by Rona Ambrose under her jacket (and many necklaces). The Megan Leslie outfit watch reports a black jacket over what appeared to be a deep green top, with a very big necklace. I couldn’t tell whether the shoes ruined or complemented it all.
This just in: apparently the Liberal Party is full of body fascists. After spending a committee hearing trying to resurrect the zombie that is the Sponsorship Scandal, Conservative Dean Del Mastro was the subject of a couple of a couple of unflattering tweets by a Liberal MP. Well, after Question Period, Del Mastro rose in the House to demand an apology, and said that these demands of “perfection” were the kind of arrogance that would lose future elections for the Liberals. Erm, has he seen the Liberal benches? In fact, no one in Parliament is immune to the kind of spread that happens with bad diets, too many nights of rubber chicken dinners, and not enough exercise. For him to accuse the Liberals of body fascism is pretty rich.
Elsewhere, it seems that those ten percenters are adding up – and that the Conservatives spent $6.3 million on them last year. They also virtually dominated the top twenty offenders (save Olivia Chow, the only opposition MP). Of course, no one will want to give up the privilege, given that they’re also useful data mining tools for parties. But it still doesn’t hurt to know what’s being spent.
Speaking of ten-percenters, I got a mailing from my local MP who wants me to know all about the good work the NDP are doing with their housing bill. The “poll” on the back says “Yes Paul! Affordable housing and ending homelessness are important to me.” Because there’s nothing like having only one allowable response to assist in data mining.
The Information Commissioner released a new report that raised concerns about the no-fly list and Fintrac – the financial tracking database designed to stop money laundering and terrorist financing. Bill Siksay, the NDP’s Information, Privacy and Ethics critic, expressed his own concern based on the report.
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