Matt Burrows at The Straight notes Jim Prentice is receiving a lump of coal just in time for Christmas as two non governmental organizations lambaste Canada as an environmental laggard (PDF)

Ignoring the forgettable Ambrose, there are two important differences between Prentice and Baird that matter: Baird isn't a threat to Stephen Harper, Prentice is.

Baird was pushed to Environment because irascible bombast is Harper's modus operandi when he intends to do nothing but make it look like he's doing something. If you want self-righteous anger and bombast, but no results, Baird's your man.

Sadly for Mr. Prentice, he's an honourable person who leaves a strong impression that he actually wants to achieve something positive no matter what job has been handed him. That's not a recipe for success in Harper's harem where the cream is curdled and tossed out, not allowed to float to the top.

Prentice won't be allowed to succeed on this file in part by the shackles imposed by his boss, and in part because he is from, well, Alberta. In the process his reputation as a straight dealer will be cut down a number of notches.

Its a scenario just as Stephen Harper ordered.

Antonio Cuni yesterday posted a useful hack that brings colour and improved completions to the Python interpreter.

Attached is a minor patch which updates rlcompleter_ng.py to run on both Python 2 and 3 platforms.

On FreeBSD (and virtually every other system with a stock libreadline v 5.2) you'll need to patch libreadline - apply this patch to the source in /usr/src/contrib/libreadline. Don't forget to remake Python after making and installing the patched libreadline.

Looks lovely, thanks Antonio!

From the you-knew-this-would-happen but it-doesn't-matter-anyway department

Last night: Liberal Party Announces Consultative Process to Appoint an Interim Leader

Liberal Party President Doug Ferguson announced Monday that the Liberal Party’s National Executive has approved a consultative process by which it will appoint an interim Liberal Leader ...

Consultative, not democratic, a process which regular members would have largely been excluded from.

“I first wish to thank Mr. Dion for the courage and passion with which he led the Liberal Party of Canada,” said Mr. Ferguson.

Mr. Ferguson may have also added: "Don't let the door hit you in the bum on the way out, Stéphane".

This morning: Rae bows out, Ignatieff secures Liberal leadership (CP)

OTTAWA — Michael Ignatieff has secured the federal Liberal leadership without a fight after his last remaining rival, longtime friend Bob Rae, bowed out.

Rae informed his supporters of his decision during a conference call this morning and is to make it official at a news conference later today. His decision came just hours after the Liberal national executive rejected his plea to find an expedited way of giving all party members a vote for Stephane Dion's replacement.

And no messy recriminations about party democracy.