• There was a bit of a row at the beginning of Harper and Rousseff's bilateral meeting, when the Brazilians insisted only official government photographers could attend the photo op -- no media.

• The PMO says the Brazilians would not allow a joint news conference at the end of the meetings because the President didn't want to take questions.

• After Harper and the President made their respective statements, Rousseff walked about 15 metres and held a lengthy question and answer session with Brazilian media.

• Canadian media were being hurried on to buses and back to our filing room.

• The lunch in question started 15 minutes late -- no reason was given.

• It's not the first time Harper's been accused of ... taking too long in the washroom.

Bloc MP Louis Plamandon, the longest-serving MP in the House of Commons, checks the ballot box used to elect the Speaker at the start of the last Parliament in 2008. (Tom Hanson, The Canadian Press)

They've done it before, they will do it again.
 
The few Bloc MPs returning to Ottawa will ask to be recognized as members of an official party, but Louis Plamondon admits it's a longshot their request will be granted.
 
In 1990, six MPs defected from the Progressive Conservative benches to join the newly-formed Bloc Québécois, including Plamondon, who was first elected in 1984.
 
Shortly after, Gilles Duceppe won in a Montreal byelection and joined them.

Under House of Commons rules, it takes 12 members to be recognized as an official party - a long way from the Bloc's four.

(Graham Hughes, The Canadian Press)

Gilles Duceppe says he didn't see it coming.

That's the headline today in Montreal's Le Devoir newspaper.

The Bloc Québécois leader sat down for an interview with the editorial board of the paper on Tuesday, when he admitted "it's stronger than we thought."

It, of course, is support for the NDP.

(Métis de la Cote Nord)

The day after André Forbes was booted from the Liberal candidate list for comments the party leader called "utterly unacceptable", there's barely a trace of Forbes's abortive bid in Baie Comeau.

The streets in one of the two largest towns in the riding of Manicouagan look like just about any other across the country right now - filled with a variety of campaign signs.

But among the Bloc, Conservative and NDP signs there is one noticeable absence: Liberal signs with Forbes's smiling face.

With the exception of one intersection....

More after the jump.

(Jacques Boissinot, The Canadian Press)

Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe was in Saint-Jean-Port-Joli Monday morning.

A lovely little town along the St. Lawrence Seaway.

Duceppe and the local candidate here, Nathalie Arsenault, were set to go for a walk along the pier jutting out into the river, where hundreds of small chunks of broken ice were floating quietly past.

Arsenault, an assistant or two, and the assembled media were waiting by the side of the road for Duceppe's bus to arrive.

It turns out that the quiet peacefulness of the area wasn't by accident: we were all standing in front of a cemetery, which is where Duceppe's bus let him off.

Not the kind of optics most politicians look for out on the campaign trail.

(Jacques Boissinot, The Canadian Press)

Quebec's Le Devoir newspaper had an interesting exchange with Independent candidate André Arthur.

The paper, well known for its avowed support of Quebec nationalism (if not outright sovereignty), sent an email to Arthur requesting an interview.

"No thank you," was the short reply.

The paper wrote back asking if Arthur was declining the dates offered, or any interview at all during the campaign.

To which Arthur replied, "No, thank you. As in, you don't invite a fire hydrant to a dog show."

With that in mind, Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe has a one-man show going calling Harper a liar, someone whose ambition borders on obsession and wants a majority to "impose his ideology" on everyone.

But there seems to be at least one anti-Harper attack that Duceppe feels crosses the rhetorical line.

Find out what it is, after the jump....