Orders of the Day (12/31/09)

Farewell, 40th Parliament, Second Session. Despite the complete absence of any sort of cataclysmic constitutional crisis precipitating your demise, your final hours somehow managed to be nearly as abrupt and inexplicable as those of your predecessor. It even inspired the Globe and Mail to devote a chunk of precious front page real estate to an editorial on the subject, although just between us, I found the rant from Ottawa bureau chief John Ibbitson to be more satisfying, somehow, although that could be because he was one of only four reporters in the gallery for that vote on the order to produce detainee-related documents in uncensored format, although Former Colleague Coyne was clearly there in spirit. 

So, what's on the Hill agenda today? Well, like every other day this week - except yesterday, of course -  there's - sing along if you know the words! - nothing much going on in Ottawa, what with it being New Year's Eve Day, as well as the final Friday before the official unofficial end to the Christmas holidays. That's right, come Monday, it's back to the grindstone. Parliament may be shut down until March, but as Hot Room Colleague Maher notes, not all of us are about to embark on a 63 day Olympic Vacation. 

I don't expect any hastily convened press conferences today -- although you never can tell, can you? -- but if I hear of any, you'll be the first to know. Otherwise, savour the last of the Naughts -- and pity the purveyors of those novelty NYE sunglasses that use two 0s for the eyes. (Then again, they had to have seen this coming, right?)