The federal Liberal Party was distributing the following this afternoon: "Both the Auditor General and the Chief Public Health Officer have said that pandemic planning falls under general emergency preparedness. The Conservatives have failed to plan and this is a national disgrace."

The Liberals will release Pink Book III tomorrow at 1145 at an event on Parliament Hill. The Pink Book is the policy ideas developed and advanced by the Liberal Women's Caucus and forms part of the party's platform during a federal election.

Here's a look back at the first two ...   more »

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!"

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:

I do believe, looking through the current list of recipients, that Jean Chrétien will be the only Canadian (and certainly the only Quebecer) to have received this honour. Other recipients include Sigmund Freud, Tim Berners-Lee (he invented a little software application called The World Wide Web) and playwright Tom Stoppard.

Republicans for Ignatieff's "The Colonel": "I should tell you right off the top that I am not a media savvy individual nor do I crave media attention for myself. This is not about me it's about Michael Ignatieff. Our group is small (but growing) and members live in both the United States and Canada."

At his closing press conference in Italy at the G8, the question of the future relevance of the G8 came up. Here is an unofficial transcript of the question Harper was asked and his English-language response. (He responded somewhat similarly in French). The attack on Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff came, unprompted by reporters I should point out, at the end of his comments to a question about the future of the G8...

In 2005, Jack Layton won $4.6 billion in new investments in housing and transit in exchange for supporting the minority government of Paul Martin. In 2009, Michael Ignatieff got a working group and an opposition day for supporting the minority government of Stephen Harper.

This just in from the Liberals, spelling out the deal that has been struck. One key to note -- Liberals get a chance in late September to table a non-confidence motion so if they want a fall election, that will give them the opportunity. Otherwise, Liberals would not have had that chance until the fall:

"Being a good Nova Scotian, I will offer them a few ideas. I will offer them a few suggestions. How about this? Fire the republican spin doctors they hired for one month's work. That is $25,000 right there."