Updated throughout the day when so moved...

Administrivia: I'm @confute on Twitter.

Today's edition focus: on-line advertisements and interesting resources.

Media Watch

Sun TV, the so-called "Fox News North", will makes its debut later this week, but with one less TV personality on board. Mercedes Stephenson, a noted military affairs analyst, has unexpectedly parted ways with Quebecor's Sun Media just before the launch. It looks like co-host David Akin will steer his show alone.

Meanwhile, yesterday Sun TV and Calgary-based Shaw Communications announced that Sun TV will be available as part of the regular cable station line up - for six months only - for Shaw Cable Systems customers.

Glen McGregor of The Ottawa Citizen unveils the latest Conservative scandal tearing Stephen Harper's "Tim Hortons" every-man image to shreds. Here we see a Conservative Party of Canada campaign war room go-fer bringing back what looks to be seven or eight Starbucks drinks. Seven or eight!

Look for Starbucks vs Hortons to be tonight's principal debate topic.

Updated through the day when so moved...

Here for Canada? Not when its inconvenient: (April 8, 2011 - James Fitz-Morris, CBC News)

As anyone even closely following this election knows by now, the campaign slogan for the Conservatives is "Here for Canada." But Veterans Affairs Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn is among those who has a different take on his party's "Here for Canada" campaign slogan. His riding of Jonquiere-Alma is in the middle of the Saguenay -- a region of Quebec considered the heartland of the sovereignty movement. [... Instead] the slogan here is "Notre Region au Pouvoir" (Our Region in Power).

Downplaying Federalism seems to work for the party in this part of the country -- where the Conservatives hold two of the three seats.

Why does the Conservative Party, which claims to be "Here for Canada", allow its Quebecois candidates to adopt a nationalistic tone that panders to sovereigntist mores at the local level?

Stephen Harper in 2004 said "exploiting a nationalist strategy in Quebec" is as a strategy "fundamentally mistaken":

Conservatives have also observed that, when they came to power in Canada in the past century, they did so in coalition with the province's so-called "nationalist" forces. This lesson has been interpreted by the Canadian Alliance as meaning that the party should position itself as a nationalist force in Quebec and focus on the significant anti-Liberal vote. To the extent that it had a Quebec strategy, the Reform Party before it tended to think the same way. Over the past few years I have concluded that this strategy is fundamentally mistaken. Stephen Harper, 2004

Apparently in 2011 that view has changed. Exploit away, Jean-Pierre and the rest of the Quebec team! Pork-barrel politics is the same in any language, right Larry Smith?

Updated throughout the day when so moved...

Student Vote: A project by Elections Canada to improve understanding of and participation in our democracy. Aussi en francais.

Harper doesn't like students, Canadians: Note to Elections Canada, you might want to speak to your current boss about his lack of interest in participatory democracy, you know, that concept you are trying to promote?

Tweet of the day: @fitzmoCBC Duceppe says Harper should have invited Carson to a #CPC rally - then he would have been screened. #elxn11

AG Report on Toronto G8/G20: Today would have been the day Canada's Auditor General Sheila Fraser was due to release her department's report on the +1 billion dollar G8/G20 meeting last year in Toronto and area. Jack Layton and Michael Ignatieff and Gilles Duceppe have called on the Harper government to release the report.

Many Canadians felt the government overstepped not just in spending but in restricting our fundamental liberties. It would not take much reminding to refresh the memories of Canadians of painful images captured then. Personally I think those stories are far more powerful than the discussion of wasteful fake lakes. Many Canadians felt we were a lesser country as a result of the police actions during those meetings.

The Auditor General reports to Parliament and since the house isn't sitting, the A.G. cannot release the report. However the Prime Minister's Office does have an advance copy of the report and nothing limit's Stephen Harper from releasing this report and indeed he would if it were in his political interest to do so. Does anyone want to bet a nickel that the report is unfavourable to the Harper government? Still, we can ask. Everyone should demand that the report be released by the PMO. Release the report. Release the report!

This report is germane to this election and matters. What kind of Canada do you want?

Why won't Harper release the report? Why won't he? Is he.... chicken?

CBC Question of the Day: Will the discrepancy in costs for the F-35 jets purchase affect how you vote?

Stephen Harper's plan to spend billions on fighter jets gets labelled a fantasy, again. I'll tell you what I'm fed up with in this campaign... I'm fed up with being lied to. The F35-A purchase is an excellent case in point. Here's an editorialized (but accurate) chronological portrayal of the past week depicting what Conservatives have said about the F-35A purchase program and what the U.S.'s own watch dog, and people running the program, have said:

• Stephen Harper, Peter MacKay, Grumpy Laurie Hawn, and a host of others: F-35A aircraft will cost $75 million each, not the 100 million plus those coalition bastards claim they'll cost. Trust us.
• Parliamentary Budget Officer of Canada: No, the Harper government is blowing smoke. The Joint Strike Fighter will cost far more than $75 million each; they will cost more than 100 million - close to $130 million each in fact.
• Grumpy Laurie Hawn and his bosses: No, they won't.
• U.S. Government Accounting Office: Yes, they will. As the watch dog over U.S. government spending we have much more information and the Harper government is blowing smoke.
• Delusional Laurie Hawn and his bosses Peter MacKay and Stephen Harper: No, they won't, we know better than the U.S. government watch dog who are intimately involved with every last dollar spent on the Joint Strike Fighter program unlike us here in tiny little Canada to the north.
• U.S. Vice Admiral actually in charge of the program: The F-35A will cost upwards of 120 million perhaps as much as 135 million each. By law I am not allowed to sell these aircraft or any military items to other countries at a price less than what the U.S. military pays. There is no way Canada could buy these aircraft for $75 million. End of story.
• Harper government: Na na nah na! (plug ears) We aren't listening to you! (farting noises)

Yup, Stephen Harper runs a government and party that has a clear handle on facts, truth, and numbers. For sure they should be given a majority! Not!

Ottawa's fighter-jet estimate "all hogwash," U.S. watchdog warns (April 5, 2011 - Campbell Clark, The Globe and Mail) The plan to buy F-35 Joint Strike Fighters will cost billions more than the $29-billion estimated by Canada's budget watchdog, a U.S. defence spending analyst says. "It's going to be significantly more. It's not going to be $1-billion more, it's going to be significantly more," said Winslow Wheeler, a defence-spending watchdog with the Washington-based Center for Defense Information. [...] "Ultimately," Mr. Wheeler predicted, "the cost of this airplane is going to be about $200-million per airplane."

Greenspon: F-35s: The wrong stuff for Canada (April 5, 2011 - Edward Greenspon, The Toronto Star) There are better ways for Canada to protect its northern regions and to make a meaningful contribution to the western alliance. [...] As for our responsibilities as part of an alliance, one has to get serious that sending a handful of "me-too" jets to a Libya or Kosovo is more a symbolic than substantive gesture.

The Tories are desperate to deep-six the detainees file (April 5, 2011 - Lawrence Martin, The Globe and Mail) The issue, we recall, turns on whether Canadian officials knowingly handed over prisoners for torture by Afghan authorities, a potential violation of the Geneva Conventions. Mr. Harper's government steadfastly refused to provide documents on the matter, but were ordered to do so a year ago by Speaker Peter Milliken. A special committee was then appointed to make sure any released materials wouldn't compromise national security. Bryon Wilfert, a Liberal member of the committee, said Monday that a swath of documents are to be made public by mid-campaign. But he suspects Team Harper might pull a fast one, such as a court appeal to delay a process that has already been long delayed. In fact, the Conservatives have just done this very thing in a bid to thwart another avenue of disclosure.

Strong leaders don't hide from young voters (April 5, 2011 - Matt Gurney, National Post) During a stop last Sunday in London, a 19-year-old political science student at the nearby University of Western Ontario, Awish Aslam, joined a Conservative rally where the Prime Minister was to speak. She registered online (as did a friend who accompanied her) and upon arrival, signed in and went inside. After 30 minutes or so inside the event, both women were approached by a man who asked them to follow him. He took their name tags, tore them up and escorted them out of the event.

Case of the Curious Conservative Campaign (April 5, 2011 - Bill Tieleman, TheTyee.ca) Inexplicably, they are going out of their way to alienate voters who have any environmental concerns about oil tankers off the British Columbia coast or climate change. And the Tories are using deplorable scare tactics about Tamil refugees in their television ads, despite Immigration Minister Jason Kenney's endless moves to court immigrant voters -- appearing in Vancouver-Kingsway riding last week to watch a Pakistan cricket match on TV, for example. [...] Vote for risk of coastal oil spills!

Liberals, NDP and Greens committed to banning oil tankers on B.C.'s north coast (April 5, 2011 - Dogwood Initiative) [...] only one major Canadian political party that will not ban tankers: the Conservatives. We're working hard to make sure voters know there are only two types of politicians in B.C.: those who are willing to risk a catastrophic oil spill and those who aren't.

NDP proposes help for family caregivers (April 5, 2011, CBC News) The series of initiatives would offer forgivable loans so family members can build secondary residences in their homes to care for senior family members. The NDP leader said a similar program has been done in Manitoba and under the federal plan, family caregivers could apply for forgivable loans to cover half the renovation costs associated with the secondary residence.

Former aide's criminal past dogs Harper on campaign trail (April 5, 2011 - National Post) When Mr. Harper was first asked Monday about the new revelations regarding Mr. Carson, he said he had only just learned of it and that the Privy Council Office, which does security checks, would have to "look at its systems to make sure these things get caught."

(Except that Carson disclosed his past to Harper's then Chief of Staff, Ian Brodie - not to some faceless RCMP screener. Who believes that Brodie did not brief his boss on this? Anyone? Anyone? Right, didn't think so.)

Sun burns CBC in bid to hype tabloid TV (April 4, 2011 - The Globe and Mail) Since the writ was dropped 10 days ago, the Sun chain of newspapers has run more than half a dozen articles accusing the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation of political bias, effectively running parallel commercial and ideological campaigns.

HST causes contortions for Conservative candidates in BC (April 5, 2011 - David Beers, TheTyee.ca) The Harmonized Sales Tax that caused a citizen's revolt and drove thrice-elected Premier Gordon Campbell to step down emanated from Stephen Harper's Conservative government. But a pair of Conservative candidates running in B.C. this election have danced around defending the tax.

Most Canadians want Elizabeth May at leaders' debate, poll shows (April 4, 2011 - The Globe and Mail) Nearly half - 48 per cent - of those surveyed over the past weekend by Nanos Research for The Globe and Mail said they support Ms. May's inclusion in the pair of televised faceoffs among party leaders scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday of next week. Another 13 per cent said they "somewhat support" allowing her to take part.

Federal Court judge denies Elizabeth May her bid to join leaders' debates (April 5, 2011 - The Canadian Press) Green party Leader Elizabeth May has lost in her a last-ditch effort to get in to the televised leaders' debates. Federal Court judge Marc Nadon has decided not to expedite the case before the first debate on Tuesday. The party says it will look at all options before deciding whether to pursue the case any further.

Updated throughout the day when so moved...

Broadcast consortium announces leader's debate details (April 1, 2011) Put your questions to the leaders.

Ending Canada's 'benign dictatorship' (March 30, 2011 - Terry Milewski, CBC News) Here's a little test: what would the Conservatives do if they found a clip of Michael Ignatieff calling Canada a "benign dictatorship?" Right: they'd put it in an attack ad. Another test: what would the Liberals do if they caught Stephen Harper saying that? Right: nothing. At least, that's what they've done with it so far.

The debates mess (3) - The whole thing (March 31, 2011 - Andrew Coyne, Macleans) We should also abolish this odious business of having separate debates in each language. The end result is not only to halve the audience for each debate - an election, of all times, ought to be a time when the whole country comes together - but the French debate becomes, inevitably, a debate for and about Quebec, with shameless pandering to match. [...] Whatever format we choose, whatever rules we set, they should be set outside the confines of any one election campaign. We have to stop pretending that televised debates are some sort of novelty. They've been with us for 50 years, and are now as integral to any election campaign as lawn signs and all-candidates meetings. It's time they were incorporated into the election laws.

Why the TV consortium excluded Elizabeth May (April 1, 2011 - The Globe and Mail) Broadcast consortium chairman Troy Reeb discusses how the decision was reached to bar Elizabeth May from participating in the televised leaders debates.

PM will now take your questions... but only five (April 1, 2011 - Jennifer Ditchburn, The Canadian Press) The yellow steel fence that kept reporters far from Stephen Harper on Thursday was a potent symbol of his election campaign. Harper is running a tight travelling show with little room for spontaneity, where national media are limited to four questions a day -- and kept a safe distance from the Conservative leader. Harper was pressed by frustrated reporters to explain the strict control of his campaign and his reluctance to answer more questions, in contrast to the dozens that are taken by his rivals. The Conservatives rode to power in 2006 promising greater transparency, more accountability and better access to information.

Ignatieff pressures Harper for 1-on-1 debate (April 1, 2011 - CBC News) Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff is keeping the pressure on Conservative Leader Stephen Harper, writing an open letter to demand a one-on-one leaders' debate. Ignatieff published the open letter on the Liberal Party's website Friday morning.

Open letter to Stephen Harper (April 1, 2011 - Michael Ignatieff, Liberal.ca) [...] Perhaps I can make this easier for you. I will meet you at the time and place of your choosing. There is no need for complicated or convoluted debate formats. Just two podiums - and you and me. A true, honest-to-goodness battle of ideas and visions.

This is the kind of contest that Canadians are yearning for. I know because I have been meeting ordinary Canadians of all ages, backgrounds and political allegiances at events across Canada. It's absolutely exhilarating. In fact, I would recommend that you try it.

In closing, I urge you to reconsider your reversal and stick to your word. I strongly believe our fellow Canadians deserve this chance to see the different visions of leadership between the only two people who can become prime minister of this country at the end of this election.

Layton vows to hire and train more family doctors (April 1, 2011 - The Globe and Mail) The NDP Leader arrived at Laurentian University in this nickel city Friday to pledge that a government led by him would invest in the training of more health-care professionals.

NDP goes deep behind enemy lines in quest to slay Tory majority (April 1, 2011 - Gloria Galloway, The Globe and Mail) Mr. Layton is nothing but an optimist. And he does not take kindly to those who reject the image of his party as giant slayer.

Ignatieff vows small, open government (April 1, 2011 - QMI) Despite laying down three major, pan-Canadian policy planks in as many days - on education, pensions and child care -- with multi-million or billion-dollar price tags, Ignatieff maintains the measures won't bloat government bureaucracy. "On the contrary," he told QMI Agency in an one-on-one interview on the Liberal plane between Winnipeg and London, Ont. "These are initiatives that have one common characteristic. They help Canadian families with a minimum of bureaucracy... It's not big government, it's government that sends the help directly to the family." The Liberal leader said he is also committed to creating an accountable, transparent government that welcomes public participation and respects the independence of government watchdogs.

Elizabeth May and Linda Keen to hold joint press conference (March 31, 2011 - Green Party) Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green party of Canada, will hold a join press conference on Friday, April 1 [12:00pm Pacific], with Linda Keen, former President of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.

Former nuclear safety watchdog endorses May (April 1, 2011 - CBC News) Linda Keen, the former head of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, is endorsing Elizabeth May in her race to unseat former Minister of Natural Resources Gary Lunn. Keen was ousted from her job by Lunn in 2008 after she ordered the National Research Universal reactor in Chalk River, Ont., shut down over safety concerns, sparking a major disruption in the world's supply of medical isotopes. May is running against Lunn in the Saanich-Gulf Islands riding just outside Victoria, B.C.