Prime Minister Harper met Prime Minister Brown at 10 Downing Street today where they discussed the forthcoming G8 Summit and a range of issues including the global economy; the international development agenda and Afghanistan. They also discussed the environment and the Prime Minister's address earlier in the afternoon to the Canada-UK Chamber of Commerce on the theme of climate change. As well, they agreed that the forthcoming Canada-EU Summit should see real progress on the Canada-EU economic agenda.

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Though I was paid a full-time salary and supervised a staff of about 20 full- and part-time staffers, the writing and editing was mostly done, as it is on student papers around the world, by volunteers. During my day at the helm of The Ontarion (and in the preceding decade as a volunteer there), the tradition for thanking volunteers was a night of free beer and pizza, usually at The Albion in downtown Guelph.... And so in the winter semester of 2008, The Ontarion volunteer party was held at Churchill's and the beer was supplied by John Sleeman from the new brewery that the world would soon get to know.   more »

Sitting on the tarmac at Heathrow waiting to depart for Ottawa gives me some spare time to crunch some Stats Canada numbers that have been sitting in my electronic inbox.... Census Metropolitan Areas (CMA) with the most visible minorities* *Visible minorities are defined, under federal law, as any non-Aboriginal, non-caucasian person. Toronto - CMA (Ont.): 2,174,065 Vancouver - CMA (B.C.) : 875,300 Montréal - CMA (Que.)

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Minutes before we took off from Rome Thursday morning, the press secretary for Prime Minister Stephen Harper met reporters at the back of the plane with big news: The Italians were removing restrictions that kept their troops out of harm's way in Afghanistan.... But then, 40 minutes into the flight and 36,000 feet above Europe, Stewart-Olsen came to the back of the plane again, this time with a correction: Italy had not announced it was removing its caveats but was only considering removing them, news that had, in fact, been circulating for days.... One of my colleagues, who had been travelling with prime ministers since Pierre Trudeau had the job, could not recall any other instance when the PMO staff let reporters communicate with their editors back home using the PMO satellite phone.   more »

We're not staying here long. After a busy day, we're about to fly to Cologne, Germany and, once there, we will travel to Bonn where we will stay the night.... For the ride over, we were joined by various staffers from the PMO, including Buckler, press secretary Carolyn Stewart-Olsen, deputy press secretary Dimitri Soudas, PMO policy and research director Mark Cameron, and, of course, Harper's executive assistant Ray Novak. Novak goes wherever the PM goes and, as I've often said, is underestimated power in the PMO as he is the first person Harper sees (other than his wife) when he gets up and the last person he sees before going to bed.

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For leaving behind top-secret documents at a former girlfriend's, Maxime Bernier resigned this afternoon as Minister of Foreign Affairs: The Right Honourable Stephen Harper Prime Minister Room 313-S, Centre Block Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6 Prime Minister, This is to inform you that I am resigning my post as Minister of Foreign Affairs, effective immediately.... Prime Minister, the security breach that occurred was my fault and my fault alone and I take full responsibility for my actions.   more »

A personal column, with more questions than answers, from a pretty smart media guy: Let's not bury the lead: This is a rough time for the newspaper business, a rough time for The Washington Post and a rough time for me.... The more than 100 journalists who have just taken early-retirement packages are voluntarily accepting a generous offer as the company trims its payroll -- a situation far better than at newspapers that have resorted to layoffs.

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. . . Speaking in an exclusive interview on the eve of a long-awaited visit to Canada, the 54-year-old Yushchenko said the physical toll of the treatments for his poisoning all but consumed him during his first 30 months in office. "I'll tell you one secret – how to make your body pool its energy and strength," Yushchenko said, calling the period from 2005 to mid-2007 the "biggest overload on my health" because of a punishing schedule of operations.

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The Queen's researchers are grouped around a new initiative called the Surveillance Project, set up in part by a $2.5-million federal government grant. "The goal of surveillance is to limit or restrict life choices, life opportunities -- for good or ill," said David Lyon, a sociology professor at Queen's and the director of the project .   more »

Earlier today, Senator Hillary Clinton referenced Bobby Kennedy's assassination in June 1968 -- and it wasn't the first time she's brought this up in the campaign ... This time, though, reporters asked her, considering the death threats made against her and her opponent in the race to win the Democratic primary, if she thought it appropriate to reference that event: MSNBC's Keith Olberman, in a remarkable 10-minute long rant, tells Sen. Clinton that she was most definitely wrong ..

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