Top 5 at 5: Most commented stories

Two of Canada's leading economists want Ottawa to expand the GST to include food. (CBC) Each day, we bring you a list of Top 5 stories. Sometimes they're the most read stories of the day, other times we focus on a specific region or category.

Today, we bring you the top five most commented-upon stories from the CBC News landing page.

1) Robocalls to trick voters draw opposition fire

The Conservatives defended themselves Thursday over links to a company used to make fraudulent phone calls that sent some voters to the wrong polling stations last year.

The party's elite, from Prime Minister Stephen Harper to Jenni Byrne, who ran the national campaign during the 2011 election, was forced to address the issue after a report in the Ottawa Citizen.

2) EU at stalemate on Canada's oilsands ranking

European Union officials are at a stalemate after voting on whether to classify Canada's oilsands crude as more harmful to the environment than other fuels -- a proposal that Canada would fight.

The ballot by experts from the EU's 27 member countries, which are weighted by population, failed to produce the required 255 votes needed to approve the classification.

3) Transport Canada OK's Northern Gateway supertankers

Transport Canada has "no regulatory concerns" with Enbridge's proposed marine operations for the Northern Gateway pipeline, clearing the way for supertankers to carry Canadian crude across the Pacific.

Thursday, Transport Canada told the federal Joint Review Panel examining the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project, that it had finished its review of the proposed tanker traffic that would sail through waters off B.C.'s North Coast, taking crude from the Alberta oilsands to overseas markets in China.

4) Charge GST on food, economists say

Two of Canada's leading economists want Ottawa to reopen one of the hottest issues of the last two decades by expanding the GST to include food.

The two economists -- Michael Smart of the University of Toronto and Jack Mintz, head of the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary -- say the way Canadian governments collect sales taxes is among the most inefficient in the advanced world.

5) Crime bill won't benefit victims, says former ombudsman

The federal government's massive crime bill won't help victims and could do the opposite, the former ombudsman for victims of crime warned Thursday. Steve Sullivan, who was appointed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper as the first victims' ombudsman, said Bill C-10 is being touted as legislation designed to benefit victims but there are concerns it could hurt them instead.