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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I'm not entirely sure where Mr. Santelli lives, or in what house he lives, but the American people are struggling every day to meet their mortgage, stay in their job, pay their bills, to send their kids to school, and to hope that they don't get sick or that somebody they care for gets sick and sends them into bankruptcy.... This plan helps people that have been playing by the rules but can't get refinancing, get that refinancing so their home doesn't become foreclosed on. And Mr. Santelli might also know that if you live in a home that's near one that's been foreclosed, your home value has likely dropped about 9 percent, which for the average home is about $20,000.   more »

Friend and former colleague Daniel Leblanc of The Globe and Mail hits the big time this weekend with an appearance on Tout Le Monde en Parle: Le journaliste Daniel Leblanc ne lâchera pas mot.... That would be Patrick Lagacé of La Presse who had an exclusive blockbuster that as many as three players for the Montreal Canadiens may have had close personal ties to man now charged with drug and other criminal offences and who may be connected to organized crime in Montreal.

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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 »

I'm sure most New Yorkers, passing by this giant billboard, might have wondered who that was standing shoulder-to-shoulder with their president. And I'm sure Michael Ignatieff never thought he'd see the day ...

A senior editor here came up with the moniker "The Beavertail Summit" for today's Obama-Harper meetings. Better than the Shamrock Summit (I think). Still, just as with the Shamrock Summit, some pundits were embarrassed by Canada's enthusiasm for Obama. Some other tweets, clips and other anecdotes including the stories I actually wrote like: Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his one-day guest, U.S. President Barack Obama, concluded a few hours of meetings here by proclaiming renewed commitments to fight climate change, the global recession and security threats to the North American continent. "I love this country," Obama said at a Parliament Hill press conference, the first he's given outside the United States since he became president. "We could not have a better friend and ally." Harper used the occasion to deliver a message he hopes American journalists travelling with the U.S. president will take to their readers and viewers, that Canada is as serious about security as the U.S...

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Barack Obama is on foreign soil today for the first time since becoming President. He's here, in Ottawa, for his first face-to-face meeting as president with a foreign leader, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

I've been busy all morning writing about it for our online sites and Twittering away at #obamawa.

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