What do you get a woman who has everything? Her own palaces even.

Prime minister Stephen Harper and his wife Laureen are to meet the Queen on Wednesday at Buckingham Palace and their gift for the occasion is a wooden pedestal bowl.

It's made of "woodlace" birdseye maple and walnut and was carved by Garry Bowes, a woodturner from Ottawa who was a former research technologist at the Canadian National Research Council for many years.

The Harpers have brought their kids, Ben and Rachel, along on this trip. But there is no word yet if they will get to meet the Queen and Prince Charles.

— Susan Lunn

Prime minister Stephen Harper is travelling to the United States this weekend.

Not for a formal visit with the U.S. President, other world leaders or a business group. Instead the prime minister is doing a series of media interviews, with Fox News in Washington and CNN in New York, to talk about next week's G20 meeting on the economy.

The Liberals launched a new website today to provide their own assessment of the government's attempts to stimulate the economy.

But future visitors to the site are only a typo away from getting something far... uh... less partisan shall we say.

OnProbation.ca promises that "you can help us keep the government on track."
OnProbation.COM promises... well...

Remember that horrible feeling you got when you were day dreaming in class and the teacher called on you to answer a question you hadn't heard?

Well, sometimes it even happens to those who are paid to attend question period in the House of Commons.

Remember how the Conservatives used to slam the Liberals for all that government polling?

And remember how, when the Conservatives took over, an independent investigator reported the Harper government spent more than $31 million on public-opinion polls in 2006-07, during its first full year in power?

For those not paying attention, that was significantly more than the on-average $18 million per year that recent Liberal governments spent on public opinion research.

That report prompted former public works minister Michael Fortier and Treasury Board President Vic Toews to make a public promise in February 2008 to cut spending on polls by $10 million in the next budget year.

That would be the one that's just ending, 2008-09. But the numbers for 2007-08 have now come in and they show that, dime by dime, the government is inching towards its target.

In its annual report on polling in 2007-08, the department says spending was down to $24.8 million and that the overall number of surveys, 446, is down from the 563 projects in 2006-07.

The overall annual cost is still higher than the Liberal average but at least it is getting lower.

Today, Justice Jeffrey Oliphant received an application from Brian Mulroney's lawyer requesting an adjournment to the start of the inquiry into the former PM's dealings with businessman Karlheinz Schreiber. He wants the inquiry pushed back from March 30 to April 14.

Lawyer Guy Pratte is also seeking clarification of the commissioner's recent ruling on the standards of conduct he intends to apply in this case

What does it all mean?

Well, it might mean an even longer delay as Pratte seems concerned about the commission's jurisdiction and Oliphant's decision on just what will be examined at the inquiry and what won't.

Particularly, Pratte seems concerned by Oliphant saying he would be "informed" by federal criminal statutes as he picks his way thorugh the evidence.

The Manitoba judge made it clear in a previous ruling that he would not rule on criminal liability. But Pratte seems concerned Oliphant is opening the door to just that.

— Rosemary Barton

In December 2007, Toronto lawyer David Brown submitted his task force report on governance and cultural change in the RCMP. It was called Rebuilding the Trust.

Brown found the RCMP was understaffed and that Mounties were overworked and, in many cases, disillusioned with the organization.

Among his 46 recommendations, Brown advised the government to pass laws "as soon as possible" to create a single, independent Commission for Complaints and Oversight for the RCMP (instead of the two groups that do the job now).

He also wanted a new civilian board of management and said it was essential for the RCMP to sever itself from the government and be run like a Crown corporation, hopefully by the end of 2009, which is not that far off.

A group of MPs will soon pull up stakes for a cross-country organized crime spree. Well actually, it'll be a spree of hearings on organized crime.

The House of Commons justice committee is studying the problem, which many say is at the root of the recent spate of shootings in British Columbia's lower mainland.

Tentatively pencilled in for March 29th to April 3rd, the tour will begin in Halifax and then hit Montreal, Toronto and Winnipeg before finishing off in Vancouver.

The proposed budget for the trip is $202,049.

— Alison Crawford

Today, some backtracking by the federal Liberals.

Leader Michael Ignatieff announced thta Liberal senators would help fast-track the budget — meaning it could come into force as early as tomorrow.

Liberal senators originally said they wanted to have a good long look at the 500-plus pages of budget legislation before passing it, which they were promising to do before the start of the new fiscal year on April .

The change of heart came because the Liberals "just realized" that the extension of Employment Insurance benefits contained in the budget is retroactive, which could be a help to those whose benefits are now about to run out.

The politics behind all of this is rather fascinating.

— James Fitz-Morris

The prime minister is known to have a sense of humour. But Stephen Harper's quip about the balance of domestic power has some critics fuming.

On Tuesday, Harper delivered his speech on the economy at a Board of Trade luncheon in Brampton. During the speech, Harper referred to his government's new home renovation tax credit.

Harper said he wouldn't try to explain how the tax credit works. Instead he offered this: "In my experience it works like this. If you own a home and you have a wife, you will probably be doing home renovations this year."

Harper smiled at this point and there was a ripple of quiet laughter in the crowd.

On Wednesday, however, Liberal and NDP MPs chastised him for the remarks, which they likened to casual sexism and which happened to come just a couple of days after International Women's Day.

It would be nice to report that some of the prime minister's cabinet colleagues rushed to his defence, but that wasn't exactly the case.

Helena Guergis, the minister of state for the status of women, was asked after caucus about the PM's remarks, which had made the front page of a least one daily newspaper.

Guergis continued to walk down the hall and, looking back over her shoulder, said: "Tell you what, I'll get my office to give you a call and we'll arrange a time to talk." And then she was gone.

It should be noted that Guergis marked International Women's Day with a statement that promoted her government for having the highest percentage of women in a federal cabinet in Canadian history, as well as a minister of state dedicated solely to the status of women.

— Chris Rands

It seems the Conservatives have deployed a new strategy to turn the economy around: the power of positive thinking.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper kicked it off with this in his response to Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff during question period: "I urge the party opposite rather than finding the negative in everything, get on to passing (the budget) and doing something positive for the Canadian people."

Jack Layton asked a question in question period Tuesday about the Canada Job Bank:

"Hon. Jack Layton, Leader of the NDP: Mr. Speaker, excuses don't cut it for the quarter of a million people that have been thrown out of work since the last election, and you know, when these unemployed workers turn to its government's job bank website to get a little bit of help and maybe a little bit of hope, what do they get? They log on and they're greeted by a message saying there are technical difficulties. Well, no kidding, Mr. Speaker. How can we have any confidence in a website about the slush fund when they can't even get their job bank website working?"

Earlier this week, Environment Minister Jim Prentice held a background briefing and then a press conference to announce the details of the government's new enforcement bill to make polluters pay.

The event was held at the Chateau Laurier, mere steps from the Parliament buildings, and in view of the environment department's headquarters across the river in Gatineau, Que.

So, I asked why, in a time of fiscal restraint, was the government paying to rent two boardrooms at the hotel instead of using the space it already had on Parliament Hill or at the department.

I was told someone would get back to me with the cost of renting the two rooms by the end of the news conference. Then I was told to send an email and the information would be gathered right away.

But when no reply came, I sent another email and was then told I would have to send in an access-to-information request to find out how much it cost the department to rent two boardrooms at the Chateau Laurier.

That means CBC will have to pay $5 for me to send in this request, just to get an answer to questions that I was already told would be forthcoming.

I was informed I can pay by credit card.