The governor of the Bank of Canada, Mark Carney, has reluctantly added his voice to the great debate over the future of the Canadian penny.

NDP MP Pat Martin is sponsoring a private member's bill to eliminate the penny, viewing it as a useless, wallet-clogging relic from another era. But the government's response has been that eliminating the one cent coin is not on its agenda.

Still, before the finance committee today, the new governor was asked for his thoughts.

Carney at first tried to avoid the subject. He said the fate of the penny doesn't fall under the Bank of Canada's purview. But he then went on to say the bank has done research on the subject and found that the elimination of the penny would have neither an inflationary nor a disinflationary effect on the economy.

The Bank of Canada's stated policy is to maintain inflation at or below a two per cent increase.

A chocolate brown Labrador dog was the star of the show at a press conference held at the Ottawa airport this morning.

Forget that Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day was there — all eyes were on Shelly, a sniffer dog employed by Canada Border Services Agency, who sat at the minister's feet throughout the press conference.

This was, perhaps, due in part to the fact that the minister did not have anything new to announce.

The Bloc Quebecois is trying its best to keep the story about election financing alive, the so-called in-and-out scheme.

Today Parliament will vote on a Bloc motion asking for Parliament to reiterate its confidence in Elections Canada.

The Bloc and the Liberals will vote for the motion and it is likely the NDP will do the same.

The Conservatives, though, well that's a different story.

After growing pressure from the international community and the United Nations, tomorrow Canada will announce additional money for food aid across the world.

Although no official numbers have been given, Canada is expected to boost its contribution which, for this year, stands at $84 million for the UN World Food Programme.

Journalists don't often have much opportunity these days to talk to three cabinet ministers at once.

That might explain why almost 20 reporters crammed into a tiny overheated room in a downtown Ottawa office tower this afternoon. They had all been told about an "important announcement regarding the National Anti-Drug Strategy" with Health Minister Tony Clement, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson and Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day.

Alas, today's "important announcement" turned out to be the launch of a TV advertisement to help educate parents about street drugs.

If you're experiencing deja vu, that's exactly what the reporters were feeling as well.

Many had attended a remarkably similar news conference on March 5. The same group of cabinet ministers had launched a series of almost identical radio and newspaper ads.

U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins hosted a luncheon today at his Ottawa residence.

The purpose was to debrief reporters on the North American Leader's Summit in New Orleans earlier this week.

The NDP took a gamble on the North American Leaders Summit in New Orleans and it paid off.

Burnaby-New Westminster MP Peter Julian set himself up at the media hotel near the famed French Quarter. He then made sure every Canadian reporter's room was "householdered" with the party's positions on NAFTA and the Security and Prosperity Partnership.

U.S. President George W. Bush is playing up the location of this year's North American Leaders' Summit in New Orleans.

He says it's a great opportunity to show the world that the city, devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, is back open for business. His officials point out convention traffic is back up to 80 percent of what it was pre-Katrina, and tourism is up 75 percent.

Only a handful of journalists showed up at the Superior Court of Ontario in Toronto Monday to get copies of the police search warrant that was the basis for the raid on Conservative party headquarters last week.

In a noteworthy price gap, the provincial court charges about $1 a page for copying, which makes its Federal Court counterpart a bargain at only 40 cents a page.

That means media outlets such as the CBC, which were not on the list to receive a free copy of the lenghty document from the Conservative party on Sunday, had to shell out $600 to get the complete version on Monday.

Of course, it is only through getting the court's official copy that one can be sure there are not any missing pages.

To see the complete warrant, click here.

The North American Leaders' Summit has become a regular target for the anti-globalization movement and its members seem very happy to be in New Orleans this week.

In part that is because there are still visible signs of the damage done by Hurricane Katrina nearly three years ago
and that gives movement leaders like Canadian Maude Barlow the opportunity to argue that the richest nation in the world cares so little about the disadvantaged among its own people that it hasn't bothered to make the recovery of New Orleans a priority.

Barlow points to the growing gap between rich and poor in the United States as evidenced by the growth in low-paying jobs in the service sector.

She quotes a woman she met here saying, "Yes , NAFTA has created more jobs in America. I've got three of them!"

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is attending the North American Leaders' Summit in New Orleans to discuss international issues such as trade and energy.

And his aides are determined to stop reporters covering the trip from asking about the on-going Elections Canada investigation into alleged illegal spending by the Conservative Party in the last election.

Tomorrow a delegation of MPs will meet with the Dalai Lama in Ann Arbour, Michigan.

Ken Boshcoff, the Liberal MP on the Tibetan Parliamentary Group, will be presenting a letter from leader Stephane Dion about human rights in China.

The Assembly of First Nations says it will hold its second annual National Day of Action on May 29th.

The Assembly first tried this tactic last year as a way to focus attention on First Nation's issues.

It was June 29th and in spite of calls for calm by National Chief Phil Fontaine, it wasn't exactly without incident.

The Conservatives and Liberals took their differences to the rink last night for their yearly hockey grudge match.

Curious onlookers knew something out of the ordinary was going on at the multiple rink and soccer facillity with all the well-groomed, suit clad, earpiece wearing security detail roaming the halls.

They were there not to protect any of the ragtag band of skaters on the ice, but Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who took up coaching duties behind the bench of his undermanned squad. Harper did not take the game lightly. He had a binder full of plays tucked under his arm.

After a brief hiatus (very brief) election speculation is back.

Those tired of going down this road because it seems to inevitably lead nowhere are advised to read no further.

The rest of you consider this:

In the past 24 hours Stephane Dion has said goodbye to two senior staff members in his office, Paddy Torsney, Deputy Principal Secretary and Eleni Bakopanos, caucus liason.

Both intend to be candidates in the next general election, but why give up a salary if an election is not in the cards this spring?

Unless of course it is.

The RCMP, who are developing a track record for creating winning conditions on the political field may have done
something like that again with their raid at Conservative Party headquarters yesterday.

Finally, watch for more temptation in the form of a Harris/Decima poll later in the day.

Put it all together and it gives Liberals lots to think about. Again.

Bids on a date? June 9th? June 16th? Anyone?

In an effort to regain the agenda, the Conservative government has kicked off Justice Week.

It started this morning with funding announcements for a number of agencies that help victims of crime (it is also National Victims of Crime Awareness Week).

This afternoon, Prime Minister Stephen Harper will be in Winnipeg to announce measures to combat car theft. Also today, the House of Commons will consider four justice bills that have been kicking around since late last year.

Politics is sometimes a matter of degree.

Today, Jack Layton put that thesis to the test.

The NDP leader wrote his Ph.D dissertation at York University on Canada's foreign investment review policies.

No sleepover, not even a decent snooze at the environment committee Wednesday.

The Opposition, led by the NDP's Nathan Cullen, were planning an all night session at the environment committee.

They were hoping to wear down the government members who have been filibustering a private member's bill for almost 19 hours.

In question period the prime minister very rarely enjoys a laugh.

Instead he is usually reading documents, answering questions and generally being kept on his toes.

So imagine a reporter's surprise today when the PM started to make funny faces.

A former Conservative cabinet minister had some interesting reading material in question period today.

Carol Skelton was quite focused on the Career section of the Globe and Mail.

Opposition MPs chose a night of sleep over a night of debate on Monday.

They were planning to force the House of Commons environment committee to sit all night in order to bring an end to what they are calling a government filibuster on a private member's bill, in this case one that was introduced by NDP Leader Jack Layton.

But instead of bringing in the mattresses, all opposition members stood up and walked out around 7 p.m., which broke the committee's quorum and ended three and a half hours of non-stop talk by Conservative MPs.

The opposition hasn't abandoned its committee sleepover. They just needed more time to plan an all-night session, possibly for tonight, Wednesday. They expect support from environmental groups who are bringing in their sleeping bags. The NDP has even arranged a room where members can go to catch a nap ane and eat.

"We are preparing for a fight," says NDP MP Nathan Cullen.

The Prime Minister attended a question period today.

It just wasn't in the House of Commons.

When they were in opposition, Conservatives complained bitterly about the hundreds of millions of dollars pumped into the federal gun registry.

They called it a waste of taxpayers' money.

Since coming into power, Conservatives have pumped money out of the registry. Quietly in Parliament yesterday, the government tabled the 2006 annual report from Canada's Firearms Commissioner.

There's a job opening on Parliament Hill and this one doesn't come around often.

Gordon Slater, the current Dominion Carillonneur has his last day June 27th, 2008. He has been the bells of Parliament Hill since 1977, over thirty years.

It appears the House of Commons environment committee is about to pull an all nighter.

Sources say opposition members are planning to force the committee to sit all night on Monday in an attempt to stop what they refer to as a government filibuster on a private members bill.

"We're bringing in the cots and sleeping bags," says one MP.

Tom Lukiwski gave his apology in the House of Commons, to nearly empty opposition benches.

Attendance on Friday is usually spotty, as many MPs have already left for their ridings for the weekend.

There were enough Tories bunched around Lukiwski, otherwise on television it would have looked like the speech of a very lonely man. The camera in the Commons only shows the person speaking and those sitting close by.

The role of parliamentary secretary, not usually one of the more demanding jobs on Parliament Hill, is often called into question.

But Government House Leader Peter Van Loan has found a new use for his — as a distraction.

Van Loan's parliamentary secretary is Regina MP Tom Lukiwski who is currently under fire for homophobic remarks he once made.

While Lukiwski was surrounded by journalists and offering his apologies for the remarks, only recently discovered from an earlier video, Van Loan raced behind the mob to get to his office — without having to answer any pesky questions on his own on the matter.

Unfortunately, Lukiwski's apology didn't last as long as Van Loan hoped and he found himself trapped in his office, with his only route back to the House laced with straggling journalists.

After about 20 minutes and with only one camera crew and journalist still waiting for him, Van Loan's staff devised a plan to spring him.

Newly-minted Conservative MP Joe Comuzzi is about to turn 75 on Saturday (April 6) and that makes him the oldest MP in the House of Commons.

"I may be the first member of Parliament that will never get a chance to go to the Senate," he laughs. That, of course, is because the age of retirement in the Senate is 75.

Commuzzi was kicked out of Lberal caucus a year ago for saying he would support the Conservative budget.

If only he had waited a bit he could have remained a Liberal and supported all the Tory measures including the most recent budget.

"I was anticipating the future," says Comuzzi wryly.

For weeks, Liberal MP Dominic LeBlanc has tried to bring a motion before the standing committee on justice to look at allegations that the late Chuck Cadman was offered financial inducements to vote with the Conservatives three years ago.

But three times now, the chair of the committee, Conservative Art Hanger, avoided allowing a vote on the motion and simply walked out of committee, forcing it to shut down.

At 3:30 this afternoon, LeBlanc tabled his motion again.

Again, Hanger ruled it out of order, saying the motion has nothing to do with the committee mandate.

At that point, Bloc MP Real Menard piped up to challenge the chair.

This should have brought an immediate vote on the challenge. But Hanger said no way, no vote on the challenge.

Menard began to shout, demanding an immediate vote. Hanger’s face reddened. People held their breath. Would he walk out again?

He did.

New Democrat MP Nathan Cullen seemed to get carried away in question period today when pressing Environment Minister John Baird to move forward on Bill C-377 (The Climate Change Accountability Act.)

In making his point that Conservatives are stalling the bill, Cullen called Baird "Minister Mugabe" — likening him to Zimbabwe's dictator president Robert Mugabe, who's suspected of rigging recent elections and stalling the vote results from being made public.

As a multimedia presentation, it left a bit to be desired.

Liberal MP Dominic LeBlanc called a press conference to reiterate that he wanted to hear from the prime minister on exactly what was offered to Chuck Cadman, the late Independent MP whose support was highly sought after during a crucial Commons vote three years ago.

Before the Easter break, questions arose as to whether Cadman had been offered compensation for his vote from two Conservative party officials.

Today, plagued by audio and video problems, the Liberal PowerPoint presentation was a jumbled chronology of who knew what and when.

Pat Martin thinks the venerable penny isn't worth … well, one red cent. And so, the NDP MP has introduced a private member's bill, calling on the government to stop minting the one-cent piece.

"It costs more to produce than it's worth," he says.

Yes, he told reporters, there are billions of pennies still in Canadian change jars, "but it's just not money anymore so we think the time has finally come to do away with it altogether."

But a penny for your thoughts, Mr. Martin: How's a Canadian to pay $1.98 for a coffee without a few of those copper-coloured pieces?