A special subcommittee of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology (Twitter hashtag: #CINDU) spend the last several weeks hearing from witnesses in forestry, aerospace, mining, manufacturing, and other ailing industrial sectors in the Canadian economy. The subcommittee's report, just out last week, provides a good, conventional and relatively brief summary of how we got here, separating out factors that we can chalk up to the recession and factors that we can chalk up to ongoing structural change some of these sectors. The recommendations, however, were not unanimous among the parties. Here's some of the things that stood out for me . . .

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But other staffers, even those who have come in for a dressing-down by Byrne on those conference calls, says she has to be that tough because the meeting after her daily 7:15 a.m. call with staffers is with the prime minister and it's her job to make sure he is not surprised by anything a reporter or opposition politician might say that day. When Sandra Buckler (another woman) was Harper''s director of communications, I'm told that she and Byrne often tussled over what the message of the day ought to be and then Buckler would decide how that message would be delivered.    more »

I always thought that being an entrepreneur meant you didn't need government handouts? Am I missing something here?

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... please note that reports that the Canadian Embassy in Iran was turning away people seeking sanctuary are false. Embassy staff are making every attempt to ensure services provided, particular consular services, remain unaffected by the situation. To our knowledge, no embassies in Tehran have provided shelter to injured foreign nationals. We are aware of media reports that Italy may open its embassy to wounded protesters ...

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So you can understand how relieved I was when the Prime Minister's Office e-mailed their handout photo-du-jour to press gallery reporters. It is a picture of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty reviewing Important Documents today at Willson House which overlooks beautiful Meech Lake, Quebec....

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Canada's fourth and current Information Commissioner, Robert Marleau, announced today his retirement from public life effective June 29, 2009. In a letter to notify the Governor in Council of his decision, he explained that his reasons for doing so are entirely personal and of a private nature.   more »

The core complaints of the industry have not changed. Not enough angel investors. We don't support venture capitalists well enough. Government and other industry sectors don't buy enough tech stuff from Canadian companies. Canadian companies spend next to nothing (relatively speaking) on research and development. . . .

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[Tweet at 1842 Sunday night] Some posters mistakingly believe that western embassies are sheltering wounded protestors in Tehran, except Canada. I've looked into this ...

[Tweet at 1843 Sunday night] ... and its completely untrue. Canada has contacted all relevant embassies in Tehran to enquire. None are doing so: they ca

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A parallel path followed with urgency can bring the already built MAPLE reactors to an operating state or perhaps the next six to eighteen months. And such a strategy offers the best prospect for putting Canada on a firm footing for assurance of supply.[of medical isotopes] ... there are two MAPLE reactors, each with the capacity to deliver more than the current world requirement. Positive PCR requires a relatively simple engineering fix to restrain the bowing of the elements and to reduce the PCR to approximately zero. I thank you for your attention, and I hope this doesn't turn into another Avro Arrow.

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The engineering team that built the MAPLE nuclear reactors at Chalk River, Ont., was four months away from fixing a technical problem that had kept them from getting a licence when the project was cancelled, MPs were told Thursday...

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