"Indeed, [Prime Minister] Harper himself has done far more to delay his own crime legislation, by proroguing Parliament and other stalling tactics, than Liberal senators have ever done.”

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Deen Beeby is the Access to Information ace at The Canadian Press' Ottawa bureau (Bronskill over there is pretty sharp, too). He's got a great knack for asking for just the right kind of documents that often contain interesting nuggets about what your federal government is doing. This morning, he reported that something was so interesting in documents about to be released to him by the Department of Public Works and Government Services that a political aide to the then-minister of the deparment, Christian Paradis, had a bureaucrat literally run to the mailroom to intercept the documents that were about to be sent to Beeby. The bureaucrat's excuse: They were frantic to save CP $27.40 in photocopying charges. Yes. My eyebrow is raised as well at that one.

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"Commonsense Conservatism hinges on the not-so-tacit assumption that the average, hardworking churchgoer, like the ladies at the booth, equipped with the fundamental, God-given ability to distinguish right from wrong, is in a better position to judge, on "principle," the merits of an economic policy or the deployment of American troops abroad than "the 'experts'"—a term here unfailingly placed between derisive quotation marks. Desiccated expertise, of the kind possessed by economists, environmental scientists, and overinformed reporters from the lamestream media, clouds good judgment; Palin's life, by contrast, is presented as one of passion, sincerity, and principle. Going Rogue, in other words, is a four-hundred-page paean to virtuous ignorance."

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The Seattle-based Pew Environment Group is praising the governments of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams today after the announcement the the creation of the Mealy Mountains National Park in Labrador. While Harper's government has been roundly and often harshly criticized domestically and internationally for being a laggard when it comes to climate change policy, but his government has won praise from many of those same detractors (sometimes a bit grudgingly) for setting aside millions of square kilometres of land, mostly in Canada's north, for new parks and wildlife reserves.

“Congratulations to Prime Minister Harper and Premier Danny Williams. This is a great leap forward in efforts to complete the Canadian National Park system. Prime Minister Harper’s leadership has been critical to the protection of Canada’s boreal forest—considered by scientists to be a top global conservation priority," Steve Killick, director of the Pew's International Boreal Conservation Campaign, said in a statement. Killick's colleagues passed along the picture, left, of hikers in the Mealy Mountains.

“These new parks will draw tourists from around the world, conserve lands important to aboriginal Canadians and safeguard the habitat of the Mealy Mountains woodland caribou herd. Bigger than the United States’ Yellowstone and Yosemite parks combined, the scale of this new protected area is remarkable. It will rival the largest protected areas in eastern North America, equal in size to New York’s Adirondack State Park, twice the size of Everglades National Park and six times the size of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.”

The Ottawa-based Canadian Boreal Initiative is also pretty chuffed: "We are very pleased to recognize the achievement of the governments, the Aboriginal peoples and local organizations who came together to advance a common vision for the protection of this important region.”

Environment Minister Jim Prentice, the minister responsible for Parks Canada, was in Happy Valley/Goose Bay, Labrador today to make the announcement about the park.

The park reserve will protect roughly 10,700 sq km, which will make it the largest national park in eastern Canada. The provincial government also announced its intent to establish a waterway provincial park to protect the Eagle River, adjacent to the proposed national park reserve. Together these areas will protect over 13,000 sq km.

I used to be a stamp collector and remain fond of the hobby and its practioners. So for those philatelists who drop by here now and again, I draw your attention to the unveiling this morning of a new stamp, honouring New Brunswicker and former Canadian Governor General Romeo Leblanc.

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Statistics Canada reports that in January, the Canadian economy added 43,000 jobs, a sign of strength that surprised many professional forecasters, who were expecting a rather tepid employment report. Most those new jobs were part-time but, still economists say the results were a positive sign. And Statscan itself notes that the number of people in Canada is far off the peak employment numbers of October, 2008 (the month of our last general election, coincidentally). In fact, there are 280,000 Canadians who had a job the last time they voted for a federal government that do not have one right now.

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Whether you're a fan of the prime minister or not, I think most Canadians would agree with his thoughtful analysis of our national game, which he sketches out some detail in an interview with Michael Farber of Sports Illustrated:

Although there are important sports in Canada -- our own football, lacrosse -- nothing does compete with hockey. It's on a different plane, to the extent where, rightly or wrongly, people see these sports as deeply reflective of the character of the nation [and] certainly deeply reflective of the sports culture of the nation. And sports culture is an important part of any nation. You can say soccer in many countries [is] just as important but ... nobody has a national claim to soccer the way Canada has a national claim to hockey or the United States has a national claim to baseball. They define the country in a unique way.

It says, first and foremost, we're a northern country. It's an important part of our character. I was recently chatting about hockey with [Russia] President Medvedev. And, you know, we're the two coldest countries on earth, and not by coincidence, the two best hockey countries. Fairly consistently. It does say that. I think it also says something about the character. Hockey is a fast, aggressive, tough sport and that's an important part of the Canadian psychology and history. It's sometimes forgotten because Canadians are thought of as peace-loving and fair-minded and pleasant -- which I think we are -- but that's not inconsistent with tough and aggressive and ambitious, which is also part of the national character.

The other thing I should mention about hockey is this: From the fairly early days, [it was] culturally cross-cutting as well. It's English and French. It's pretty well all regions of the country. Ethnic communities. One of the first things you see [is] immigrants start to belong to Canadian society when their kids start to come to the hockey rink. Then the parents start to integrate with the other parents. It crosses social class lines. So it's a great common denominator. It really is.

"Today, Opposition members held a transparently partisan event. It is clear that they are only interested in politicizing an issue on the backs of our brave men and women in uniform. Instead of undermining our troops, this Government chose action—and improved an inherited Liberal Taliban prisoner transfer agreement that remains the Gold standard amongst our allies."

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Clement also said: "While there have been a number of positive economic indicators such as recent GDP growth, there is one statistic that is still too high: unemployment. The number of Canadians looking for work is still unacceptable. The economy, specifically creating jobs remains the top priority of the federal government." With photos!

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"In twenty-five years as a lawyer, I have never had a clearer and more egregious case of abuse. Yet thus far the US courts have shut the door entirely on Arar, not even allowing him to offer proof
of his claims...

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