James Cudmore Bio

The final background media briefing by soon-to-be-former PMO communications director Dimitri Soudas began with a debate about picture-taking.

(Canadian Forces Combat Camera)

The Canadian military is refusing to say how many bombs its fighter pilots have dropped on Libyan targets.

The Canadian Forces lead spokesman Wednesday told reporters the information was protected because of operational security concerns.

Brig.-Gen. Richard Blanchette says disclosing the number of bombs dropped might be useful to Libyan intelligence agents, though he couldn't really say why.

"How could they use it?" Blanchette asked. "It's not necessarily clear right off the bat. But, it could be used in a way that would be going against the effort that we're having in the theatre of operation."

Read more... after the jump.

There was a face in the crowd at Jack Layton's multi-media town hall in Toronto, Tuesday, that I recognized.

It belonged to Joe Cressy who, as it turned out, helped organize the evening's event.

Cressy's also the campaign co-chair for Olivia Chow, the NDP candidate in Trinity-Spadina (and Jack Layton's wife).

He is also, more famously, a participant in a Parliament-disrupting protest in the public galleries of the House of Commons in 2009.

A day after the Conservative Party harangued Michael Ignatieff for misquoting their leader on health care, the Conservative war room has returned the favour.

In a media release titled "COALITION WATCH" rushed out by following Ignatieff's televised interview with Peter Mansbridge on Tuesday, the Conservative Party misquotes the Liberal leader.

Ignatieff was talking about how it could be possible to become prime minister without winning the election.

Perhaps the sticker affixed to the condo door should have been the first clue we were entering dog territory: "Punish the deed," it read, "not the breed."

And the second clue was somewhat more obvious. It was a loud, barrel-chested bark, that startled even through the still-closed door, and echoed down the hall.

Olivia Chow was door-knocking in her Toronto Trinity-Spadina riding.

And behind this particular door, was a dog named Rocky.

Jack Layton is promising to fight hard for more seats in Quebec.

Currently the NDP have one seat, in Outremont. But they've picked up a star candidate in Cree politician and activist Romeo Saganash.

Saganash is very well known in Quebec, and he's running in the province's far north in Abitibi-Baie-James-Nunavik-Eeyou.

Layton's message in Montreal is focused on two enemies: The Liberal party and the Bloc. It's sort of an assumption for Layton that no Quebecker really wants to vote Conservative.

Warning: This blog contains material of a (robo) sexual nature.

Domo Arigato.

Campaigns are filled with weirdness. But having covered three federal elections, I can honestly say, I have never heard of anything as weird as this.

Jamie Butler, a camera-operator and editor for Global News, last night had a run in with a robot.

Or at least, the cast-off tinfoil-covered cardboard remains of a homemade robot suit.

More - too much, really - and photos, after the jump...

By the time day ends, NDP leader Jack Layton will have been the only federal party leader NOT to have taken a question from reporters.

Layton's press secretary is promising questions tomorrow. But today, says Karl Belanger, the campaign is busy.

And it is. Layton started the day in Ottawa, where he delivered a 15-minute speech twice (once in each Official Language).

Then he jetted to Edmonton -- a four-hour flight -- for a largish event at the Art Galllery of Alberta.

From there the tour will take off for Vancouver, in preparation for tomorrow's event in the Lower Mainland.

So, yes. It is a busy day. But, really, it's never too busy for questions ... is it?

There was, for an hour or so today, a mini fight between journalists and NDP party officials.
It happened in the middle of a 4-hour flight to Edmonton and was only settled, in the end, a few minutes ago.

The fight was about an NDP decision to send Layton first off the plane when it touched down in Edmonton -- ahead of everyone else.

Now, the way these things usually work, is that the photographers and videographers all file off the plane ahead of the leader, so they can take pictures of him or her actually arriving in, in this case, Edmonton.

For about two hours this afternoon, Layton's staff had him skedaddling ahead of everyone else.

So, no shot (question: if Jack Layton arrives in Edmonton during an election campaign, and no one is there to take pictures of it, does anyone hear?).

NDP staffers said it was about timing: they wanted their leader to get to a hotel to rest, ahead of his event tonight.

But, of course, as some of us are cynical, we couldn't believe that.

Perhaps the party was trying to prevent us from taking pictures of Jack Layton descending the stairs, with mucho-difficulty because of that bad hip.

There was some arguing, and a few not-entirely-UN light-hearted accusations, but then the NDP staffers saw the light

And they let us off the plane first, to watch the crutch-using Layton descend the stairs.

And, turns out, there were no problems!

Sure, Layton didn't bound down the stairs, but there was no wincing and his stride was strong.

Frankly, he looked NOT at all like a man recovering from hip surgery.

Just a guy with a cane.

The NDP are holding their launch rally in the drawing room of the fancy-shmancy Chateau Laurier.

There's a large Canadian flag draped as a backdrop to Jack Layton's podium, which itself is emblazoned with an orange sign that reads "Canadian Leadership."

In French, it says, "Travaillons Ensemble," or "Let's work together!"

There's a rather large crowd gathering outside the drawing room.

There are small Canadian flags for supporters to collect, and presumably, wave.

Outside the Chateau, there's an orange-festooned bus, with a giant picture of Jack Layton's head, printed on both sides.

Layton's team have also imported some help for this campaign: Jennifer Stewart will be joining the regular media team on the NDP leader's tour.

Stewart is normally Nova Scotia premier Darrell Dexter's press secretary.

Dexter, of course, heads an NDP government and the federal party is hoping to translate his provincial victory there into more federal seats in Nova Scotia.

The first arm of the Canadian government to reveal Canadian CF-18s had commenced combat operations over Libya, was the Department of National Defence's combat video service.

Earlier today, military Combat Camera videographers posted action shots of armed CF-18s taking off from Trapani, Italy, on their first mission.

By 10:45 ET, I was able to confirm with military sources, that the flight had indeed taken place, and that it was a combat mission.

There were at least two fighters. They were armed with a mix of air to air weapons and bombs.

Their mission was to serve as fight escorts for fighters of other nations who were conducting bombing operations in Libya, although Canadian bombing missions could begin as soon as tonight, CBC News has learned.

By the time we got the news that Canada had joined the air war against Libya on CBC Radio's World Report, CBC News Network, our website and via Twitter, the military had for some reason stripped the video off its website.

In the meantime, no one else in government has confirmed combat has begun: There was no statement from the Prime Minister or Minister of National Defence, no official release from the Canadian Forces and no address to Parliament.

Just that once-posted, now not-posted video on an obscure corner of the military's website.

In fact, the Prime Minister's Office did not immediately respond to an e-mail requesting confirmation of the fact Canada had started combat operations.

And the Minister of National Defence's office would only say that the military would hold a technical briefing at 1 p.m. ET, today.

So, we've officially joined the war, but apparently the government hasn't seen the need to tell anyone about it.

The Prime Minister has arrived in Paris for that big summit on what to do about the unceasing violence in Libya.

It's a short trip for the PM.

He left Ottawa at about 8:45 p.m. Friday night, and will likely be back before midnight Saturday.

In total, Harper will have spent more time in the air than he will have on the ground. Same with the crew of reporters and news technicians, who are traveling with the PM.

The PM's plane (still grey, by the way) was ordered into action at the last minute. The military flight crew, who normally dress in their best dress duds, were instead wearing their olive drab work dress.

General Walt Natynczyk, the Chief of the Defence Staff, was on the plane, too (as was foreign minister Lawrence Cannon).

Natynczyk had been in Afghanistan until Thursday. He told reporters he woke up in Doha, Qatar, Friday morning, hopped on a plane to Frankfurt, hopped on another one to Ottawa and hit the ground at 6 p.m. -- just in time to rush to the government hangar and hop on the PM's plane back to Paris.

But none of this is the PM's fault. The summit was very hastily organized.

And the signs of that haste are everywhere in central Paris.

The streets surrounding the presidential Palais de l'Elysée are swarming with police -- harried and worried-looking police.

And to give you a sense of the scope of the event, the streets are also swarming with journalists and satellite trucks, and strewn with video cables. This summit is a big deal.

U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron is here, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is here, so is the leadership of the Arab League, and of course, host Nicolas Sarkozy.

In fact, that was just the invitation light last night. By this morning, it expanded again.

Full UPDATED list and more from Paris after the jump...

About 200 Canadian troops are on constant stand-by to help evacuate Canadian citizens from foreign countries.

The so-called NEO Company Group, or Non-Combatant Evacuation Operations company, is in a perpetual state of high-readiness, prepared to deploy anywhere in the world within 72 hours.

The ad hoc unit is currently stationed at CFB Gagetown New Brunswick, and is centred around a company of infantry soldiers from G Company, 2nd, Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment.

In September last year, soldiers from the unit deployed to Hawaii, to participate in a mock evacuation of Canadian citizens from a hostile situation in an unnamed foreign country.

This week's cabinet shuffle resulted not just in the ascension to cabinet of new ministers and ministers of state, but the re-ordering of the government's cabinet committees, those low-profile gatherings of ministers who consider policy and provide advice to the prime minister and cabinet.

First up was the decision to shut down the five-member cabinet committee on Afghanistan.

This high-level committee was formed following the Manley Panel on Afghanistan, to provide interdepartmental control of the mission.

The idea was that the mission was too important to be relegated to just another line item on the Cabinet Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence's agenda -- there was too much at stake, and the government needed to have a dedicated committee of cabinet ministers to manage the mission and all its bits and pieces.

But with the combat mission in Kandahar now coming to a close, that special committee has run out of mission to manage.

David Johnston, the new Governor General, has the digital world confused.

Just what is the meaning of that 33 character-long string of ones and zeros that is emblazoned across the bottom of his fresh new Coat of Arms? 

According to the GG's website, "The wavy band inscribed with zeros and ones represents a flow of information, digital communication and modern media."

Alrighty then. But does it have any meaning?

Maybe. But if so, it's well and truly hidden.

Perhaps a real code monkey could divine an answer. But the smartest computer guy I know, my brother, couldn't figure it out.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper drives an ATV as he visits Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T. on Thursday. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

Prime Minister Stephen Harper went ATVing today...on the runway at Tuktoyaktuk.

He took off, and left his RCMP detail in the dust. They then chased him. Two officers on ATVs, and some more in pickup trucks.

Harper roared up and down the Tuktoyaktuk airport runway. He was going very fast. His security detail continued to chase him.

When asked if he had a licence to drive an ATV, especially on a runway, Harper said, "I think I make the rules."

He was clearly very pleased.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper will spend at least a few more hours in Churchill, Manitoba Tuesday.

Harper is on a northern tour and was supposed to depart Churchill for Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, at about 9 am Ottawa time. But the weather has conspired against the PM and his flight has been delayed.

Put simply, it's like a hurricane out there. And there's nothing anyone can do about it. Here's Environment Canada's wind and rainfall warning for Tuesday morning:

For every Census, Statistics Canada convenes a large consultation process to help design the questions. It's a four year process that ends with cabinet approval of the proposed Census.

According to Statistics Canada: "From April to November 2007, Statistics Canada met with over 360 people during more than 50 in-person consultations. The majority of the participants were data users. Meetings were held with federal, provincial and territorial governments, municipalities and regions, non-profit organizations, community groups, academia, private industry (which includes licensed distributors and the media), advisory committees and the general public." 

You can read the 2011 consultation report online here.

Prorogation and pardons, Jaffer and Guergis, detainees and documents, confidence and contempt, and of course, summits and scandal.

It's been a rough, rough few months in Ottawa. But the spring sitting of the House of Commons is -- thankfully -- done. Members of Parliament are on their way back to their constituencies.