Last weekend, International Trade Minister Stockwell Day was the guest on a new feature that's being jointly produced by Canwest News Service and Global National. It's called In Person and, each week, Global Bureau Chief Jacques Bourbeau and Canwest News Service Politics Editor Mark Kennedy will grab a beat reporter for an in-depth interview with a top Ottawa official, usually a cabinet minister. You'll be able to watch a video excerpt of this interview and read a news story out of this interview at our Web sites or in one of newspapers.

Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan was this weekend's In Person subject. My colleague Janice Tibbetts is the beat reporter on the justice file so she joined Jacques and Mark to interview Van Loan. Day, as I mentioned, is part of my reporting responsibilities. Here's an edited transcript of that interview.

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Elections Canada is out this afternoon with the reports on third-party advertising during the last election campaign. Under Elections Canada rules, any organization that is not a political party and that spends more than $500 during an election campaign has to file a report with Elections Canada, within four months of the election, spelling out how much they spent and where they got the money.

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"U.S. Navy Lt.-Cmdr. Bill Kuebler, one of Khadr's military-appointed lawyers, said Tuesday that his supervisor had now barred him from visiting Khadr. In an emailed press release to reporters, Kuebler accused Guantanamo's Chief Defence lawyer, Col. Peter Masciola, of "ethical" violations."   more »

The NDP has voted against the budget at every step, saying that, first of all, it is not an effective cure for Canada's economic ills and second of all, is being used to advance ideological goals of the Conservatives, namely rolling back pay equity rights, short-circuiting environmental assessments, and cutting back on union and social justice rights. So the lone NDP MP on the Finance Committee, Thomas Mulcair, is doing everything he can to goad the Liberals into doing something -- anything! -- to vote for his party's amendments and against the Conservatives. . . .

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As stock markets in the U.S. drooped to levels not seen in a decade and Canadian markets hit another low, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty pressed MPs to quickly pass his budget legislation which will spring billions of dollars in tax relief and spending aimed at helping Canada's economy . . . The NDP, however, continues to object to the budget, saying it sets back progress on pay equity and contains insufficient help for the unemployed.

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Or at least that's what several recreation and boating groups told the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance tonight.

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t's been a remarkable political turnaround for Day. . . . but Peter Julian, the NDP's trade critic, says that whether it's Day or his predecessor David Emerson, the government is not doing enough to protect Canadian jobs . ..

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After Kady blogged about a big black-tie gala here in Ottawa that featured politicians, journalists and a lot of Gilbert and Sullivan music, one of her commenters, J@ack Mitchell, came up with this witty gem, with apologies to G&S: I am the very model of a modern Tory Minister, My public views are circumscribed, my private views are sinister, In wetsuits I look chiseled, for I’m hardly roly-poly, oh! And that’s why they have given me this wonderful portfolio On weekends you’ll appreciate my hardy grassroots-mustering But weekdays I’m in Parliament and smugly filibustering I can’t decide if Harper likes me only for my shyness or Because I like to talk to my invisible pet dinosaur!

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the PMO's attempt to control the Press Gallery via The List is nothing, it seems to me, compared to the control the White House has over the press corps there. "Canadian journos decide on their own who gets ?s and what they will ask. We, on the other hand, at Gibbs' mercy" wrote Christina Bellantoni, White House correspondent for the The Washington Times . . .   more »

Under the title of "Working With Canada", some of the pics taken by the official White House photographer of President Barack Obama's visit to Canada are online. Just like Prime Minister Harper's official photographers, Jason and Deb Ransom, White House photog Pete Souza will get the best angles and the best access.   more »