Prime Minister Stephen Harper spent much of the day huddled with his cabinet ministers in advance of an important Conservative caucus meeting tomorrow in Charlottetown.

Both discussions are aimed at setting priorities for the fall session of Parliament.

But it is another meeting on the horizon that prompted the prime minister to get on the blower with U.S. President George W. Bush. The North American Leaders' Summit takes place next month in Montebello, Que. And while we are to be the host, that doesn't necessarily mean we get the first word on everything.

There's another job opening in Quebec, if you want to be a member of Parliament.

Bloc MP Michel Gauthier, the man who (briefly) succeeded Lucien Bouchard as BQ leader in 1996, formally resigned his seat this past Sunday. Gauthier, 57, has been recovering from surgery and had already said he would not be running again.

That leaves the door open for the prime minister now to call a third byelection in Quebec this summer.

It's expected that Stephen Harper will send voters in Roberval-Lac-Saint-Jean to the polls on the same day as the other two byelections in Outremont and Saint-Hyacinthe-Bagot, on Monday, Sept. 17.

He's cute and cuddly and the prime minister wants you to adopt him.

There's a new option on Prime Minister Stephen Harper's website: a featured pet, available for adoption from the Ottawa Humane Society.

So far, cats rule. Yesterday's pet was a domestic tabby named Dylan. Today's is a four-year-old shorthair called Harley.

The prime minister and his wife, Laureen, are known for their love of cats. Since the Harpers moved into 24 Sussex, his website has featured pictures of the PM with his favourite pets, as well as information on the Ottawa Humane Society's foster program.

This new feature, which went up over the weekend, allows visitors to get profiles and detailed information on specific animals available for adoption. The site is to be updated on a regular basis.

There wasn't a tread left on the tires of Lt.-Commander Jean Marcotte's bicycle as he rode onto Parliament Hill today fresh from his cross country tour.

Marcotte and his Oryx specialty racing bike spent the last two months riding across Canada in support of the National Defence Military Families Fund, which provides emergency money for needy families of soldiers.

A full 7,128.8 kilometres later, Marcotte had raised $1,435.

Byelections are highly anticipated political events. Without giving them too much weight, they can be good barometers for determining how political parties are faring in a particular area at any given time.

At the moment, four federal ridings are now officially vacant, and three other MPs have indicated that they will resign their seats by the end of the summer. But the byelection in the Montreal riding of Outremont must be called no later than this Saturday.

As a result, there has been all sorts of speculation about what date the prime minister will choose for that vote — he has as long as six months after the call to set the voting date. But his newly declared candidate for the riding seems one step ahead of most of us.

Imagine if your boss asked you for a donation of a thousand bucks for some corporate project? You'd probably wonder if your job depended on it.

Well, that's what has happened to some Conservative staffers on Parliament Hill. And they may be wondering the same thing.

Despite the fact that the Conservative party is awash in cash, political aides have been asked to empty their pockets and make a $1,000 political donation to the election war chest.

Many replied that they've already hit the ($1,000) limit for political contributions this year. Others are upset by the request.

It isn't unusual, however, for political aides to be encouraged to give money to the hand that feeds them. The Liberals have encouraged staffers to attend party fundraising dinners on their own dime, or to join the party's Laurier Club, at a fee of, yes, $1,000.

It is the end of July, a time when federal politicians are usually either holidaying or hitting the barbecue circuit. But this week, at least one group of federal MPs are being called back to work on Parliament Hill.

The Commons' aboriginal affairs and northern development committee is being reconvened to continue work on Bill C-44.

This bill would extend the redress mechanism of the Canadian Human Rights Act to native people, particularly native women who have been lobbying strenuously for it for some time, to counter perceived discrimination by certain band councils. The proposed changes should go through. The question is when.

There used to be a time in Ottawa when journalists would grab a liquid lunch together at the National Press Club, which had the added benefit of being in the same building where most news organizations had their main offices.

Reporters would stay for hours at the club and chat with politicians and senior aides who were there doing the same. Unfortunately for the press club, it's fallen out of favour in recent years. Some blame it on the increase in the number of younger journalists (mostly female) who have a different take on political schmoozing. As well, the club fell victim to the new world of smoking by-laws, its own lacklustre food, cellphones and maybe even the 24 hour news cycle.

Today, you're more likely to find journalists, staffers and politicians mixing about in other Ottawa wateringholes like Brixton's and D'Arcy McGee on Sparks Street and, of course, Hy's Steakhouse (a little more upscale but located right across the street from the CBC).

Every once in a while a quick scan of the Canada Gazette will reveal some interesting tidbit, like this one from the Canadian International Trade Tribunal.

It's been studying a complaint about adult diaper dumping. (Try saying that three times.)

It seems a company called SCA North America-Canada complained to the quasi-judicial body that dumped imports of "disposable adult incontinence briefs" from France were injuring Canadian producers.

Well, Canada takes these concerns seriously and the Canada Border Services Agency was dispatched to investigate. But late last month, the Canadian International Trade Tribunal found the "dumping of the aforementioned goods has not caused injury and is not threatening to cause injury to the domestic industry." Apparently, with our aging society, there is enough growing demand to go around.
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It is not easy for a political leader to stay in the public eye while Parliament is not sitting. Grabbing a bit of attention becomes even more onerous if you lack the advantage of being in power.

In the past week, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has taken on a number of events, everything from a barbecue in Edmonton to his four-nation tour of Latin America and the Caribbean, which wraps up Friday.

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion, for his part, is not just sitting around: he attended a town hall session in Halifax earlier in the week and today held a news conference in Mississauga to discuss the manufacturing sector.

It's not usually the way government announcements are made but in a response tabled with the clerk of the House of Commons Wednesday, the Harper government confirmed it will reintroduce legislation to restore the anti-terrorism powers it lost a few months ago in a parliamentary vote.

As well, it says it will bring forward new legislation concerning security certificates, the old one having been struck down by the Supreme Court of Canada. Security certificates allowed the government to detain and, at least in theory, deport foreign nationals who are considered a threat. But the courts prevented Ottawa from deporting individuals to countries where they might be tortured.

You'd have to forgive Canada's Aboriginal peoples for being a little annoyed.

The newest thing we've borrowed from them is their National Day of Action.

Theirs was held June 29th to highlight First Nations issues such as the deteriorating conditions on reserves and outstanding land claims.

But now the nationalist Council of Canadians is set to jump on the protest branding bandwagon. They're billing their big event for the end of August, a demonstration against the Security Prosperity Partnership — the Canada-U.S.-Mexico plan to tighten North American borders — as a National Day of Action as well.

Somehow, it just doesn't seem fair.

It's not your usual summer vacation spot but Ottawa Centre MP Paul Dewar spent this past week in Erbil in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Thankfully for him it is one of the more peaceable areas of the country.

Dewar was there for a conference on "Practical Federalism in Iraq" organized by two groups, No Peace Without Justice and the International Alliance for Justice, with the support of the Italian ministry of foreign affairs, the Kurdistan regional government and both the Iraqi National Assembly and the Kurdistan National Assembly.

So how many seats do the opposition Liberals have in the House of Commons? It's getting harder to keep track.

Ever since Vancouver Liberal David Emerson crossed the floor and joined the Conservative cabinet, just weeks after the January 2006 election, this Parliament has been a game of musical chairs.

Colombia is shaping up to be the diciest stop for Prime Minister Stephen Harper on his wide-ranging trip to South America and the Caribbean next week.

The government of President Alvaro Uribe is embroiled in a scandal in which several senators and congressional representatives have been linked to some of the country's violent paramilitary groups.

What's more, while Uribe has made some progress in making the country saferof late, it's all relative.

In 2006, almost 1,500 people were killed or injured by landmines and 687 people were kidnapped — down from 1440 in 2004.

The prime minister's office and Foreign Affairs are being tight lipped about what their royal visitor will be up to in Ottawa this week.

King Abdullah II of Jordan begins a two-day visit to the nation's capital tomorrow. The itinerary and the agenda for the meetings are being kept under wraps until then.

However, a quick visit to the website of his majesty turns up a bit more detail. According to the Royal Hashemite Court, King Abdullah and Prime Minister Stephen Harper will discuss the ever elusive two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian confict as well as "ways to strengthen security and stability" in Iraq.

When you're looking for someone to head up a large, even historic, police organization, how much does having actual cop experience matter?

Apparently, not much.

Today, the federal government announced that bureaucrat William Elliott will be taking the helm of the RCMP as of July 16. Elliott, a lawyer, has loads of experience advising on national security matters, but he has never served as a police officer.

However, when CBC News talked with two RCMP officers and asked them for their thoughts on the outsider as commissioner, they were enthusiastic about the choice.

Access to Information can be an endless paper chase, even a bit of a mind game.

Recently, in response to three separate requests, the Department of Public Works replied, “the document does not exist."

Interestingly, with each of these there was an attachment that stated:

“REFUSAL TO CONFIRM OR DENY RECORD EXISTS
10.(1) Where the head of a government institution refuses to give access to a record requested under this Act or a part thereof, the head of the institution shall state in the notice given under paragraph 7(a) that the record does not exist”

It looked like a red flag, one that our reporters who specialize in access had never seen before. That prompted follow-up phone calls to the people who administer the Access to Information Act. It took a week to get the response that the records really do not exist, and that Public Works was just citing the actual wording in the act to convey that informaton.

Public Works appears to be the only department issuing these confusing notices, which are something of a Catch-22. If a document does not exist, the bureaucrats tell you that. But then they tell you exactly the same thing if they feel it is a piece of information they have they right to withold access to.

We've been assured the situation has nothing to do with a recent one at Foreign Affairs where another media organization was told that a document about detainees in Afghanistan did not exist but, as it turned out, it really did exist after all.

It was a sight to fuel even more rampant speculation.

Late Thursday afternoon, two men in the Mounties' dark blue dress uniform strode into a building in downtown Ottawa.

The men were RCMP Deputy Commissioners Pierre-Yves Bourduas and Bill Sweeney. The building was Langevin Block, which houses the Prime Minister's Office.

New Elections Canada figures show the federal Liberals are trailing the Conservatives two to one in party donations.

The Conservative Party of Canada raised $18.6 million in 2006 — slightly more than twice what the Liberals brought in, $9.1 million.

The disparity indicates the ongoing challenge facing the Liberal party as it tries to adapt to tougher, new fundraising rules.

The Conservatives have a long tradition of small individual donations, whereas the Liberals have relied largely over the years on large corporate contributions.

In 2006, the Conservatives had 108,000 donors, more than four times the number of Liberal donors.

Figures also show that the Conservative party is successfully convincing many of its members to sign up for automatic monthly donations in small amounts of $20 and $25.

That technique is also being used by the NDP, which raised nearly $4,000 from 25,000 donors in the same time period.

Liberal party officials have blamed their poor record in 2006 partly on the party's leadership convention. They say many supporters donated to leadership candidates last year and, as a result, didn't give to the party at the same time.

Parliament Hill reporters were jolted into action early this morning when the press gallery sent out a last minute notice that the president of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, was in Ottawa to meet with Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion.

News organizations usually get advance notice of visits like this, especially when they involve someone of Abbas' stature. This time they had twenty minutes to get to the photo opportunity on Parliament Hill.

But they were in for a bigger surprise when they arrived at Dion's office. It wasn't Mahmoud Abbas at all. It was his son, Yasser, a special adviser to the Palestinian Authority.

It turns out staffers in the Parliamentary Press Gallery had their wires crossed. They work in two different locations, one on the Hill and the other across the street in the National Press Building.

In transmitting the message about the event from one location to the other, the name Yasser Abbas was abbreviated to Abbas, and someone assumed that Mahmoud was the Abbas in question.

The gallery apologized to Dion's people for the mix-up. But at least the Liberal leader had a better than anticipated turnout for his photo op, on a sleepy summer day.

"Bonjour y'all! I've taken French. It didn't take to me." And with that, US Ambassador David Wilkins kicked off the Fourth of July celebrations at his posh Ottawa digs.

More than 3,000 diplomats, politicians and Ottawa somebodies ignored afternoon showers to enjoy the hospitality.

Among those making the rounds were former prime minister Joe Clark and his wife, Maureen McTeer; Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion; Bloc Québécois MP Claude Bachand; Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day; Supreme Court of Canada Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin; Chief of Defence Staff Rick Hillier; retired Major General Lewis MacKenzie; and House of Commons Speaker Peter Milliken.

The Ambassador dished up authentic Southern fare and hammed it up for the cameras, showing off his special red, white and blue Fourth of July belt while his wife Susan modeled her Ann Hand Lady Freedom Scarf.

But, Wilkins struck a serious note when asked about the war in Afghanistan. He urged reporters to look at the "successes," observing that the Taliban and the terrorist training camps have been taken out and that the country has a "national assembly elected as in Canada and the United States."

"Canada and the United States are helping this young democracy survive against terrorists," he said. "And if we pull out now, in my opinion, the terrorists will follow us home."

Well, if you’re anybody in Ottawa you’re probably invited to the U.S. ambassador's residence this afternoon. That's where Ambassador David Wilkins and his wife Susan are, as he puts it, “hosting three thousand of our closest friends” at their annual Fourth of July celebrations.

To give you another sense of the scale, the catering staff had to resort to golf carts to move around the four-hectare site and set up the five beverage and seven food tents.

The theme of this year’s party is an “Old Fashion Southern Picnic." On the menu: fried chicken, pulled smoked pork, pimento cheese sandwiches, potato salad, mini-hamburgers and hot dogs and even homemade, churned ice cream. Guests will be able to leave with some boiled peanuts grown by one of the ambassador's old college roommates.

The white balcony of the residence has been draped in American flags. The big dining tent was set up with white plastic tables and checkered red and white tablecloths. On each is a centerpiece: a basket of daisies and small American and Canadian flags.