Recently by Lianne Elliott

(Wordle.net) Prime Minister Stephen Harper has made his first address to the UN Assembly General in four years, touting Canada's global record as he pitches for a seat on the UN Security Council.

For your viewing pleasure, we've got a copy of the speech below, and a graphic that looks at the most commonly used English words in the speech -- with the words Development, Canadian and UN coming up most often.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty warned in a speech Tuesday against the risk of opposition parties triggering an "unnecessary" fall election (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty addressed the Canadian Club of Ottawa on Tuesday. Here's a copy of his prepared speech, for your viewing pleasure:

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Thank you very much for the invitation to be with you today. It's a pleasure to address this well informed and distinguished group of opinion leaders.

The fall session of Parliament has just started.

It's a good time for some serious, frank talk.

We have some important choices to make.

Choices that have consequences.

CBC News has learned that the National Rifle Association, the powerful U.S. lobbying group that pushes for less gun controls, has been actively involved in trying to abolish Canada's long-gun registry for more than a decade.

The story is creating a buzz in Ottawa, with the Liberals calling on the NRA to stay out of the gun registry debate.

We've got a pile of documents relating to this story, showing that the NRA provided logistical and tactical support to organizations such as the Canadian Institute for Legislative Action (CILA), established in 1998 to lobby Ottawa to shut down the registry.

For your viewing pleasure, here's some of the items we've uncovered, on websites and in the form of PDF documents. 

A CSIS briefing note shows the agency is willing to use information obtained through torture to derail possible terrorist plots.

The note, uncovered by The Canadian Press through the Access to Information Act, explains that that CSIS will share information with police and other authorities "even in the rare and extreme circumstance that we have some doubt as to the manner in which the foreign agency acquired it."

The note, written last year to brief CSIS director Dick Fadden as he prepared for a CBC interview, says the government "is steadfast in its abhorrence of and opposition to the use of torture by any state or agency for any purpose whatsoever."

It instructs CSIS to "not knowingly rely upon information which is derived from the use of torture" and to take measures "to reduce the risk that any action on the part of the Service might promote or condone, or be seen to promote or condone the use of torture."

Canada's fossil fuel industry took a lashing Thursday, when U.S. Speaker Nancy Pelosi was heard saying she doesn't like any fossil fuels, regardless of where they're from or whose they are.

The casual conversation, heard by a Globe and Mail reporter at an Ottawa luncheon, came a day after Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach and others met with Pelosi to stress the benefits of Canada's oilsands.

Stelmach walked away from that meeting feeling he got a positive response from Pelosi, in town for energy meetings and a conference of G8 Speakers.