Happy Municipal Votin' Day, Ontarians!

... and Happy Federal Byelection Declaration Day (Observed) to the residents of Winnipeg North, Dauphin-Swan River-Marquette and Vaughan, who learned yesterday that their much-anticipated date with democratic destiny will fall on November 29th. As thrilling as that is, however, the frenzy of speculation will have to wait until tomorrow, since most Hill-based political junkies will be preoccupied by the aforementioned municipal results, particularly in Toronto -- which has managed to defy the odds by remaining too close to call, and will likely be responsible for keeping far too many of us up until the wee small hours of the morning as the final returns come in.  

Back in the House, the Canada-Panama Free Trade Agreement has been bumped down the priority list -- good call, government house leader -- in favour of a thrice-warmed-over bill on auto crime, which resumes second reading today, with report stage of C-14 -- which proposes to amend the Weights and Measures Act to ensure "fairness at the [fuel] pumps" as the backup.

Later this afternoon, Public Safety will finally get down to G8/20 summit-related business. Long-time readers will recall that a motion to do so was first proposed back in July, but filibustering from the government side left it languishing in limbo until the fall session got underway, at which point the lone New Democrat on the committee -- public safety critic Don Davies -- was able to cobble together a compromise to devote exactly half a dozen hearings to the matter between now and the Christmas break, with a maximum of 30 witnesses to be invited to testify. First on the list for this afternoon's meeting: Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, followed by Ward Elcock, who was responsible for coordinating security for the event, as well as the PM's national security advisor, Marie-Lucie Morin, and RCMP C/Supt Alphonse MacNeil, who headed up operations for the RCMP's Integrated Security Unit.

Meanwhile, the Finance committee continues with pre-budget consultations; Citizenship and Immigration finds out what human rights lawyer Lorne Waldman thinks about the proposed refugee reform package; International Trade picks up where it left off in its study of the Canada-Jordan Free Trade Agreement, and
Environment resumes its in camera wrangling over "issues and options" related to the statutory review of the Species at Risk Act.

Finally, on the leaders' circuit, Jack Layton is in Toronto to do a little last-minute campaigning with his son, Mike, who is making his first run at city council. As for the other party leaders, the PM spends a second day touring Ukraine, and Michael Ignatieff is ... well, as yet, his office hasn't announced any public events for today, but I'm sure he's around somewhere.