Whether it's Human Resources Minister Diane Finley announcing the rollout of the $8.3 billion Canada Skills and Transition Strategy or Treasury Board President Vic Toews trying to score a couple of political points with a $1,000 grant for a veterans project in Winnipeg, the federal Conservative government has been more active than ever spending money in its first year in office, rolling out more than 1,580 spending announcements since it was elected in October, 2008.

Meet your first Republican for Ignatieff: Yancy Williams of Jefferson City, Mo. Williams wants the Liberal leader, not the Conservative one, to lead Canada. He loves Iggy's anti-terrorism credentials - " I want that guy guarding American’s northern flank"- and says Iggy gets it on energy security - "Drill, Iggy, Drill!"

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is preparing to reward some of his longest-serving and most loyal political operatives with Senate appointments that could come as early as this week, Canwest News Service has learned ...

In the wake of the news yesterday that the federal government will ask the Supreme Court to overturn a Federal Court of Appeal decision ordering it to see Omar Khadr's repatriation, here's a statement from the office of Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannnon...

"The government support for our sealing industry is well known. This industry ... has tight standards, the tightest in the world. The standards of this industry, quite frankly, are better than many other industries that deal with animal products. There is no reason the seal industry should be singled out for discriminatory treatment by Europeans or any other nation, and I've been very outspoken on that. I've been outspoken on that in this country. I've been outspoken on that when I've been in Europe and elsewhere. The government of Canada is already taking and will take every measure necessary to assert our rights, because it is important, obviously."

A new version is now being sent out to thousands of Canadian households -- at public expense -- which takes on the same format but adds a new twist, a kind of soft-sell on the "Just Visiting" idea. The copy in the ad attacks Ignatieff for his time spent outside Canada but, perhaps sensitive to backlash from first-generation Canadians that someone ought not be criticized for spending part of their life outside Canada, the Tories try to soft-pedal the criticism by suggesting there's nothing wrong or illegal with working outside Canada - unless you want to be prime minister. Here's the Conservative wording: