Oda + Elections Canada = Conservative headache

The charges laid against four high-level Conservative campaign operatives – including two senators – are going to make today’s question period an interesting one. With the Oda affair still unfinished, this revival of alleged Conservative campaign malfeasance simply adds to the opposition’s narrative that the government can’t be trusted to run the nation. Jack Layton’s job will become more difficult if he’s going to find some means to Make Parliament Work™ in order to Get Things Done For Canadians™, given that the NDP is the first to call out any and all moral wrongdoings. (Hell, if Pat Martin got his way, we’d have had the parliamentary thought police instituted long ago.) This could make for a very interesting couple of weeks coming up to the new budget.

Scott Brison had an editorial in Friday’s National Post about – what else? – corporate tax cuts.

Former prime minister Paul Martin, who famously slew the deficit as finance minister in the ’90s, seems to think the government is making up its budget numbers as they go along.

Liberal status of women critic Anita Neville takes issue with Rona Ambrose’s rosy picture of the Conservative government’s treatment of women’s issues.

According to Ontario’s health minister, those rural doctors’ positions the Conservatives announced last week are not new positions; they are spots for enhanced training. Yeah, this is looking better for the Conservatives all the time.

And hey, Stephen Harper is making some “courageous” decisions: he agreed with the UN Security Council’s decision (Canada lost its bid for a seat last October) to impose sanctions on Moammar Gadhafi, and he’s going to evacuate our diplomatic presence there. I’m sure we’ll get a planted question from the Conservative backbenches on this “courageous” position at some point today during QP. After all, he does need a clip for the evening news.

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