Inside Politics

Orders of the Day - Monday, December 7, 2009

by Kady O'Malley Posted: December 7, 2009 6:50 AM Last Updated: December 7, 2009 8:01 AM
Gather 'round, all ye remaining foes of the dread HST, for the reckoning hour is at hand! Well, ish -- today's the day that the Conservative crackdown on the NDP's House-hamstringing dillydallying, as the government moves closure on the closure debate -- no, that isn't a typo, just the magic of parliamentary process -- and assembles its forces for the final battle over the legislation itself, which could start -- and end -- as early as this afternoon. 

To mark the occasion, Jack Layton will be joined by special guest anti-HST fist-shakers: Carole James and Andrea Horwath, who head up the BC and Ontario New Democrats, respectively. The trio will hold a news conference later this morning, at which they will almost certainly plug the party's destined-to-near-immediate-irrelevance anti-HST website, which launched late last week and includes, among the more predictable protest elements -- ad samples, the "Harper HST calculator," images of a beaming Layton -- what is very possibly the most unflattering picture of the prime minister since The Vest Incident.   

Speaking of the prime minister, he's still in Asia, although he's flying back later today, which means he may actually be in the House for the final vote on the HST -- if his schedule allows, of course. 

What's that? You're bored of the HST debate, and, in the wake of that much mulled-over column in yesterday's Toronto Star , are instead planning on using the rudiments of microexpression science that you've picked up watching back episodes of Lie To Me to gauge the likelihood of mutiny on the Liberal front bench? Knock yourselves out, although I'm not sure if the leader is even planning to be in the House today; you know how his people like to pretend he has far more important things to do than interrogate the prime minister in absentia. And really, what could possibly go wrong with letting Bob Rae lead the charge in the Chamber while he crisscrosses and recrisscrosses the country as part of a perpetual pre-pre-pre-campaign tour? (Also, you owe it to yourself to read Colby Cosh's metamusings on the subject, in which he manages to be both deliciously vicious and entirely sensible.)  

Outside the Commons, the Health committee will grill the government's recent nominee to the Governing Council of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research: the appointment of Bernard Prigent, it seems, has caused some consternation within the health research community, some members of which have cited his day job -- vice-president and medical director of Pfizer Canada -- as a potential conflict of interest. 

Meanwhile, with Justice still immersed in its study of the government's proposals to toughen up sentencing for fraud, the legislative committee struck to study C-51, otherwise known as the kitchen-sink crime bill, convenes its first meeting as Transport and Natural Resources hold what could very well be their respective lasts before the session wraps up.  

Tags: blackberry jungle, orders of the day