Don't make plans for February!

Let’s see there’s the report from the Afghanistan Study Group (kinda like Bush’s Iraq Study Group). The best information on Afghanistan is available from Arthur Kent, an internationally renowned journalist whose been writing stories and making documentaries there for 30 years and I hope the ASG will interview him. Arthur Kent, Sky Reporter

Then there’s the mystery about the tenure of our Chief of Defence Staff, Rick Hillier which might end in February. My guess is there’s only room for one cowboy on Parliament Hill.

Oh yeah, then Harper is required to report to report to Parliament on the implementation of the Gomery Commission recommendations by February 2008. The Federal Accountability Act falls so far short, it will be interesting to see progress on these recommendations.

Last but not least, Sheila Fraser, the Auditor General will be reporting in February 2008 on:

February 2008 Status Report of the Commissioner of the Environment


• Managing Selected Substances under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act


• Managing Selected Aspects of Pesticides


• Managing Selected Aspects of Federal Contaminated Sites


• Federal Protected Areas


• Species at Risk


• Aquatic Invasive Species


• Areas of Concern in the Great Lakes


• International Environment Agreements


• Strategic Environmental Assessment


• Greening of Government Operations

Given this government’s cavalier attitude toward the Environment, this report could be interesting reading. Harper reduced Canadian standards on pesticides in the SPP process so we can anticipate that zinger.

Other Things to Watch

Maybe the Privacy Commissioner will have reported on the CPC's misuse of personal information in its party database by February. Liberal Justice Critic Marlene Jennings filed a complaint today.

See the story here:
Liberal Justice Critic Marlene Jennings press release

or

Maybe Harper will be spending the coming months in court with Elections Canada. Harper decided to fight them in court after Elections Canada implicated 66 CPC candidate ridings for receiving over $1 million in funds from their national party for advertising in contravention of The Elections Act.

See the list of ridings involved in this $1 million scandal here:
CPC Election Elaborations

We're going to need that long weekend, Dalton McGuinty promises for February '08 for Ontario!

Byelections

Four more byelections are in the works. I believe a byelection occurs within 6 months of a notice of vacancy so I’ve put the date of vacancy in brackets and the date by which the byelection needs to occur.

Toronto Centre
(July 6) by January 6, 2008 formerly held by Honourable Bill Graham; Candidate Bob Rae

Willowdale
(July 17) by January 17, 2008 Liberal Jim Peterson retired; Candidate Martha Hall Findlay

Vancouver Quadra
(July 30) by January 30, 2008 Liberal Stephen Owen retired; Candidate Joyce Murray

Desnethe-Missinippi-Churchill River
(Sep 5) by March 2008 Liberal Gary Merasty, Canada's first First Nations MP resigned to pursue private opportunity after finally having his motion passed for a Canadian government apology to the Residential Schools Attendees. No candidate is yet selected.

A busy session of Parliament until it ends and then it gets really busy!