The NDP’s justice critic, Joe Comartin, is holding a press conference this morning to call on the government to stop their games with their crime bills. Because that’s exactly what they’re doing – but good luck with that. Playing politics is what they do best.

But down the halls of Parliament, the Liberal senate leader, James Cowan, has sent out an open letter to the justice minister to call him on his bullshit regarding the so-called “obstruction” of crime bills in the Senate. Of course, Nicholson knows differently, and many a journalist has looked at all the public information that tracks the progress of bills, and has posted the truth, but that hasn’t slowed the falsehood the government has been spinning. And it is a pretty magnificent letter – laying out the timelines, the bills in question, and most of all, reminding the Minister of the role of the Senate in Parliament.

Honestly – we need a few more letters like these, and a few more journalists to go down the hall to the Senate to get their side of the story, not just the government spin. After all, they are a fiercely independent body who are a vital part of our democratic process. They should have a voice – especially when they are being slandered by the justice minister on a daily basis. More people should be calling him out, and that includes the honourable senators themselves.

Jack Layton held a press conference yesterday about bringing ideas to the table for Harper’s born-again maternal and child health focus, and reminded the country that we still have issues in our own backyard to take care of. Later, on Power & Politics, the topic of contraception and safe abortions for women were brought up. “Education and prevention” but not safe abortions, said Conservative MP Shelly Glover – whom I am starting to consider as one of the more intellectually bankrupt talking heads brought up by the party, as the doublespeak and spin she was reciting was truly galling. Then again, it’s not like anyone expected this government to have a well thought-out, nuanced policy about anything, did they?

The Toronto Star’s Susan Delacourt takes a look back to what Parliaments were facing during the ’88 Winter Olympics – and it was a pretty heavy load, including Svend Robinson’s coming out. Apparently Harper’s excuse that MPs need to devote time to the Olympics instead really does give rise to The Economist’s charge that apparently this government can’t walk and chew gum at the same time.

Also from the Star, their editorial board thinks that the Liberals calling out newly appointed senator Bob Runciman as a homophobe is a low blow, saying he changed and helped McGuinty to shepherd a bill recognising same-sex marriage through the legislature with little fuss. People can change their views, but I still have my doubts, given the pattern of Harper Senate appointees.

Note to the NDP snark machine – I seem to recall Ignatieff saying that he would work right through to the Olympics, not right through the Olympics. Perhaps you should fact check your “Fact Check.” After all, isn’t it your leader who keeps saying that Canadians are tired of the “old way” of politics?

Up today: The Liberal roundtables du jour are two on the medical isotope shortage – which is about to get a whole lot worse – as well as one about consular affairs, with the rights of Canadians abroad, and the responsibility of the government to take care of them.

There were a couple of new stories out over the weekend that demonstrate the continuing antipathy that this government has for the civil service, and which show that it will go to great lengths to circumvent them. The first story is one which tells of how the political staffer of Christian Paradis, when he was the Minister of Public Works, intercepted and withheld a full report that was do be turned over as part of an Access to Information request – even though the request had been cleared. Clearly, it demonstrates that the government has something to hide in that report, and it will go around the civil service to ensure that it doesn’t get out. That’s right – strike another blow for transparency and accountability.

The other story is about how the government is hiring a “green advisor” to track and strategise with top officials on how to deal with the Americans on their own greenhouse gas emission plans. But for a $20,000 contract to a private consultant, they won’t say how this differs from what a trained civil servant like, oh, a diplomat would do. Once again, they have sent out the message that the civil service is not to be trusted.

These are just the two latest examples in an ongoing pattern of this government trying to politicise the machinery of government. Remember how, when he was first elected, Harper said that the “Liberal” civil service would keep him in check? Well, aside from that erroneous label, he’s clearly proving that he has disdain for them and their advice, and that he’s not above spending a great deal of taxpayer money (in a recession and in the face of a huge deficit) in order to get around it. Add this to the fact that he’s broken the system of ministerial accountability with the civil service, and put this into the broader perspective of his disdain for Parliament, and you have quite the picture. Let’s just hope that we remember these events come the next election.

In the event that you missed it, Jack Layton has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, but he plans to keep working. He then posted him reciting the very same statement from home, kitchen table in the background – on YouTube. I do have to wonder about just how long he’ll be able to keep up his schedule and keep those sleeves rolled up and working, given that he’s already had to cancel attending an event in Brampton because he wasn’t feeling up to it. This is cancer treatment, after all – it’ll take its toll. Perhaps he shouldn’t have been so quick to perish the thought of temporarily turning over the reigns to someone?

The Toronto Star’s Susan Delacourt takes an in-depth look at the brewing war over the female vote by the Liberals and Conservatives – and how the Liberals are speaking the language of women, while Harper is talking hockey to the boys. On her blog, she has the bonus mention (that couldn’t fit in the article itself) about how the bully tactics of the Conservatives aren’t helping them win over women either.

Up today - those Liberal roundtables continue this week, and today they’re holding discussions on lifelong learning and post-secondary education. Doctors Carolyn Bennett and Kirsty Duncan will also be hosting roundtables on the future of health and health care in Canada.

Shortly after the ministers of Foreign Affairs and International Trade held a press conference this morning, Scott Brison held one of his own. As trade critic, he had things to say about the recent deal made on the Buy American provisions in the States – and most of them weren’t good.

“I’m absolutely appalled that the government, this morning, is boasting about a breakthrough deal when in fact this is more of a break-down deal,” Brison started off. “A government that did not deliver the results that Canadians deserved, a government that failed to negotiate a deal when it was needed, last March, Stephen Harper and Stockwell Day declared victory on Buy American. Today they’re declaring victory again – in both cases they’re wrong. In both cases, they’re too little, too late. Most of the Buy American funding has been committed or spent – the rest will expire very soon.”

Brison excoriated the government for not getting the deal last March when it was needed. He pointed out that only 37 of the 50 have signed on, and that there are significant carve-outs on areas like public transportation and highways.

There was even a prorogation angle – Parliament isn’t sitting, and the Conservatives made it policy that Parliament has to ratify these kinds of agreements. That means that it can’t be signed off on until mid-March at the earliest, which means that the time for Canadian companies to access the remaining stimulus funds.

Much of Brison’s comments echoed what he told Xtra.ca earlier this week – that the government has neglected their relationship with the Americans, that our revolving door of trade ministers means there are no relationships being built, and that we should be dealing with them on energy security as our means of leverage.

And is this deal much like the softwood lumber agreement, which turned out to not be such a good deal for Canada after all?

“In softwood lumber or Buy American, this government declared prematurely peace in our time, and instead of getting peace in our time, we have found more attacks on Canadian softwood lumber” Brison said. “In this case, whether it’s been on softwood lumber or Buy American, this is a government that has failed to defend Canadian interests effectively in the United States, our largest trading partner.”

Of the many things that irk me about the ways in which politics and public service gets devalued, I find it very unhelpful when the Prime Minister himself says that he’d rather be an NHL hockey player than Prime Minister. Erm, excuse me? You’re the freaking Prime Minister. You know, a post that only twenty-one other people have held in the history of this country. You beat the odds, proved that somehow a person with a disturbing lack of charisma can unite two political parties and rise from obscurity and win two consecutive elections (albeit in minority governments). You’re the head of government, wielding an absurd amount of power – and you’re not shy about wielding that power in increasingly disturbing ways – and yet, you’d trade it all away to be an NHL hockey player? Excuse me?

“It’s probably terrible to say but any Canadian boy, if he could play in the NHL, would play in the NHL,” Harper told Sports Illustrated. First of all, a) no, not any Canadian boy – certainly not this one – and b) I’m certainly there are a fair number of girls who would also love to play in the NHL if they were actually allowed into the boys’ club. But that aside.

It cheapens the value of public life when hockey players are valued above Prime Ministers in the eyes of said Prime Ministers. It saddens me when I hear parents talk about how they want their children to grow up and play professional hockey, rather than cure cancer, or stop global warming, or become Prime Minister. But this is what you get when you constantly reduce the nation to a bunch of Tim Horton’s drinking, hockey watching simpletons who apparently don’t care about our place in the world, or about the bigger picture. Maybe we need to recalibrate on that front as well?

Remember the Conservatives’ plan to cancel the March and spring breaks for MPs? Bring it on, say the Liberals, the Bloc, and tentatively the NDP (who want to see the exact motion before giving their full stamp of approval). Of course, everyone is pointing out that this is simply an exercise in damage control, but really? Be careful what you wish for. For one, the government spent the past several weeks touting the value of constituency work as a defence for prorogation, and now they’re implicitly devaluing it by keeping MPs in Ottawa. But the bigger issue, I think, is what this is going to do to the tone and demeanour in the House. I mean, they’re downright squirrelly after four weeks without a break week, but now keeping them there for what? Eight? Nine weeks? They’re going to be downright feral. It’s so not going to be pretty. (And I have ringside seats).

Unimpressed by the talk from other parties – and the media – that the Liberals commitment to a childcare programme was just like their previous unfulfilled promises, Paul Martin fights back. He created a system, he reminds Canada – agreements with all ten provinces, funding in place, the works. It was just dismantled by the Conservatives shortly thereafter. And he’s right – but whether it can be restored is going to be the real question.

Conservative MP Bob Dechert had his office torched by an arsonist. That’s pretty unsettling – these offices are supposed to be places where the public can access their elected representatives (or, when they’re in the constituency at least, which apparently won’t be for the months of March or April, barring the odd Saturday). If this means they have to start implementing all manner of absurd security measures, it will be a palpable blow to democracy.

Up today – The Liberals are taking their roundtables on the road, this time to Guelph, where Michael Ignatieff and MPs Frank Valeriote and Wayne Easter to discuss a National Food Policy, doctors in rural communities, the rural infrastructure deficit (not just roads and water but also internet), and bio-energy and bio materials in the context of the green economy. Phew! Quite the line-up for a Friday.

And the government has an early morning press conference to announce a what is expected to be a deal on the Buy American provisions. Scott Brison will have his own press conference shortly thereafter.

For those of you who’ve read the Xtra editorial on the outing of John Baird (and if you haven’t, take a gander), I have to make one respectful correction to my esteemed editor's piece – there is, in fact, one out voice in the federal Conservative caucus. Senator Nancy Ruth, while a fairly Red Tory and feminist crusader, is nevertheless an openly lesbian member of that caucus. Yes, it’s a lone out voice, but she has spoken before of never really fitting in, and she has spoken out whenever the party’s social conservatism gets a little excessive (such as during the Toronto Pride funding flap). But as my editor pointed out, it’s too bad that Baird can’t follow her lead.

In what was a shocking development to me, it seems that the Conservatives have shelved the HIV pilot vaccine-manufacturing facility they had planned. Seriously? After they committed all that money to the vaccine research program – even shifting funds away from ground-level HIV/AIDS work to do so? And now they shelve the facility they were planning on? Bob Rae said if Parliament were sitting, they would have to answer questions about this. Indeed – and let’s hope this doesn’t fall off the agenda when the House does come back.

The Toronto Star’s Susan Delacourt delves a little deeper into Ignatieff’s statement yesterday about ensuring that Harper’s born-again commitment to maternal and child health includes access to contraception and abortion. It turns out that not every Liberal is happy about it, and perhaps Ignatieff had good reason to be concerned.

On the subject of Ignatieff’s foreign aid roundtable, it seems that the Afghan ambassador was none too pleased by some of Ignatieff’s comments.

A constitutional expert who appeared at the “unofficial” Afghan committee hearing yesterday urged the opposition members to censure the Conservatives by citing them for contempt of Parliament. Could this be some great drama when the House resumes?

The government is signalling that they want unanimous consent to work through the March and Easter breaks – after all, there are working days to be made up for after prorogation. So now they’re getting serious on the value of the Parliament? Or do they just see their poll numbers continuing to plummet?

That meeting yesterday of a former finance minister, deputy minister and the Parliamentary Budget Officer for that pre-budget debate? Pretty much poured cold water over everything Jim Flaherty has been saying lately. Not that it’s a big surprise.

The NDP dialled the snark up to eleven and sent out this release about the Liberals’ roundtable on white-collar crime yesterday.

Up today: The Liberal Roundtables du jour are one on public safety in the morning, with MPs Dominic LeBlanc and Mark Holland, followed by one on the environment in the afternoon with MP David McGuinty.  Later, Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae are having another “virtual town hall,” this time on the topic of Canada and the World. Politicians using new media to reach out to Canadians? Who would have thought?

PS: Remember Conservative MP Brad Trost, who bitched to pro-life sites about Toronto Pride getting funding? Looks like he just got spoofed online.