Members of the press gallery were all at the prime minister's residence Thursday evening for his annual summer garden party. The children were enjoying the small petting zoo and pony rides, while reporters were chatting with cabinet ministers and ministerial staff.

Suddenly, a lot of people were reading their blackberries.

Sandra Buckler sent out a note saying she was leaving her job as director of communications for the Prime Minister's Office.

A photocopied leaflet arrived in at least one Ottawa Centre mailbox yesterday called "A Helping Hand."

It featured a reminder that "the Conservative Government is supporting all parents with $1,200 each year for every child under six."

Gilles Bernier, Maxime Bernier's father and a former MP himself, was full of accusations this evening as he entered the Georgesville Convention Centre where his son is to speak.

It is just after five and people are strolling in pretty steadily.

They've come to the convention centre in St-Georges-de-Beauce to hear Maxime Bernier speak.

They are a friendly crowd. Young, old, couples, singles, businesspeople; a mix of "les Beaucerons."

If you were to shake Bernier's hand today — as many people in the Beauce will do tonight when he greets and speaks to an estimated maximum crowd of 500 "Beaucerons" — you would notice a large pink scar running down his first finger and part of his fist.

It's been a year in the making.

It will be all about competition laws, the global economy and Canada's competitiveness.

As the national press corps stands outside Rideau Hall for another cabinet shuffle, they gather around a fountain.

It's the best shot and often where some of the new ministers will talk after they've been sworn in.

The Prime Minister's Office made it official this morning. Prime Minister Harper will be going to the G8 Summit in Hokkaido Toyako, Japan.

Japan's Prime Minister, Yasuo Fukuda, says "world leaders will discuss the world economy, environmental concerns, African development and other pressing issues that must be tackled."
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Among members of the parliamentary press gallery, there are no two more cherished events in June than the Ottawa Ribfest and the rising of the House.

The Ribfest is an annual celebration of the hog (and what happens to its best meaty bits, when soaked in sauce and dragged across a grill). The centre of the piggy action is on the Sparks Street Mall just outside the back door of the National Press Building, where many hill hacks have offices.

On this, possibly the last day of Parliament for the session, there is a feverish pitch inside the House.

In large part it is because the Liberals intend to release their long-awaited carbon tax plan tomorrow. Or as they call it: The Green Shift.

Finding words to sell this plan in a positive light has been part of the difficulty.

Now, one of the rumoured slogans is, "Shift Happens." A typo now would be unfortunate.

With the release of government documents under the Access to Information act getting more difficult by the day, how nice to see a cabinet document pop up among the now public submissions on the Canadian Wheat Board’s ‘gag order’ case.

The Board faced off against the government in federal court Monday in Winnipeg.

First, a bit of background:

The Board is taking the federal government to court to dispute the Harper government’s orders to refrain from advertising or otherwise advocating for a single desk marketing system. In other words, when faced with the government’s stated determination (they campaigned on it) to end the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly, the Board was told it wasn’t allowed to defend publicly its ‘single desk’ system.

This arose because of the public campaign for farmers’ votes during last year’s barley plebiscite. While non-binding, the government intended to use a favourable result to justify its decision to proceed with dismantling the monopoly on barley marketing. The government could campaign in favour of ending the monopoly, but the Board itself wasn’t allowed to advertise in defence of the merits of the current system.

It was hard to sit in the House of Commons today and not be moved by the Government of Canada's apology to aboriginal Canadians for the legacy of residential schools.

The public galleries that surround the chamber were filled with First Nations folk from across the country.

One man held an eagle feather aloft as the prime minister spoke, another drummed as others applauded.

The invited guests in the gallery all clutched little speakers next to their ears, hanging off the prime minister's every word.

Today Political Bytes witnessed two very different reactions to Harper's apology.

We stood on the lawn of Parliament Hill with the hundreds of people who gathered and sat, mainly, quietly watching.

There, on the giant television screen installed outside we watched Harper apologize for the government of Canada for years of abuse in residential schools.

You could hear a pin drop on Parliament Hill today

Hundreds of of people gathered outside on the lawn in the scorching heat to hear the government's official apology for the abuse that took place in residential schools.

It is a special day in the House of Commons.

The galleries are packed.

Members of Canada's aboriginal community are crammed into the galleries on all sides of the commons.

A woman named Ghost Dancer bangs a sacred walking stick on the ground in front of the Parliament Buildings.

"I’m summoning the ancients to this sacred ground," she says.

"What spirit are you sensing?" I ask.

"A gathering, a great gathering," she responds.

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs' reception at the Westin was the place to be last night.

It was standing room only, filled with the very young, the very old, and people of all ages in between.

If a government announcement can be judged by the number of people it takes to make it, then Tuesday's announcement of a policy shift on Afghanistan was a big one.

No less than three ministers were on hand to tell reporters the government would take a new tack in Afghanistan, "rebalancing" the mission and, specifically, refocusing it on development in Kandahar Province.

MDS Nordion, the company that buys isotopes from AECL's Chalk River reactor, predicts more shortages in the future.

The company's president Steve West appeared before the House of Commons Committee on Natural Resources to talk about AECL's decision to abandon construction of its two MAPLE reactors.

AECL cancelled construction in May saying it was costing too much to solve the reactors' ongoing technical problems.

Part of the Conservative party campaign against Stephane Dion's declared — though unspecified — policy of a carbon tax is a website that calls the policy the Dion Tax Trick.

The website looks like the work of independent anti-tax rebels but the fine print on the lower left corner says "Authorized by the Registered Agent for the Conservative Party of Canada."

We're not audiotape experts over here at the CBC Parliamentary Bureau.

Yes, we work with audio equipment everyday and have done for many years, but we do not present ourselves as having the same kind of expertise that Thom Owen and Alan Gough have.

Peter Van Loan may have learned his lesson.

Yesterday when answering during question period in the House, Van Loan accidentally knocked his entire glass of water on the Prime Minister who sits just in front of him.

Here's another incident to add to the cabinet speculation list.

During question period today one of the prime minister's most busy and loyal foot soldiers made a gaffe.

Peter Van Loan was rising to answer a question about the Bernier affair. The Government House Leader has taken most of these questions over the last week and today showed extra exuberance as he stood to respond to Liberal Bob Rae.

When hosting an international leaders' summit, one must consider sumptuous accommodations, savoury meals and entertaining cultural programs.

All of that will be on tap this summer for the Francophone Summit in Quebec City. As well, the Canadian government will provide another, rather unexpected, service for its guests from nations such as Burkina Faso, Vietnam and Romania.

In the wake of the Bernier/Couillard affair you can bet government ministers have been read the riot act over keeping track of sensitive documents and information.

That probably explains why Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day was recently spotted looking panic stricken as he sprinted up the stairs at breakneck speed, into the washroom adjoining the foyer of the House of Commons.

After yesterday's first ever joint meeting of the Ontario and Quebec cabinets, Premiers Jean Charest and Dalton McGuinty invoked the names of Robert Baldwin, Louis LaFontaine and other greats of the pre-Confederation era as they described the significance of the day.

The Prime Minister says the personal lives of his cabinet ministers are nobody's business, including his.

Well, opposition MPs on the House of Commons public safety committee are making it their business. They voted today to summons Stephen Harper, Maxime Bernier and his former girlfriend, Julie Couillard next week to discuss the scandal over a love affair gone wrong, and classified government documents that went missing for five weeks.

Bernier, of course, resigned as foreign affairs minister on Monday. The PM insists he acted as soon as he learned Bernier had left the documents at Couillard's home in Montreal.

Bernier hasn't spoken publicly at all since resigning. As for Couillard , she's barely been out of public view in the past week.

It's not clear who will appear first. Or if the Prime Minister will appear at all.

Liberal MP John Godfrey is winding down a fourteen year career as a federal MP — he starts a new job on July first as head of the Toronto French School, the largest independent school in the Metro area.

Godfrey was a minister briefly and has been the environment critic and head of the Liberal caucus environmental policy group. He made the environment de rigueur before it crossed the minds of many of his colleagues.

He is a familiar congenial figure on Parliament Hill, frequently seen on his bicycle — he switches to skating along the canal in the winter.

He contemplated a run for the Liberal leadership in 2006 but after a health scare withdrew. He says he's not kicking himself over that decision.

He says his biggest single accomplishment was the New Deal for cities and communities when he was minister for infrastructure and communities in the Paul Martin government.

What he likes best about politics is the unpredictability and the front row seat on history.