I've just fired up Political Twits, an index to Political Twitter on Ottawa. Check it out and let me know who else and what else ought to be there. I'll need Twitternames, links, etc.

Parliamentarians, political staffers, and journalists were frozen out of the parliamentary computer network for about two hours this afternoon. No, it was not one of super-sized cyber-viruses, says Heather Bradley, the media relations person for the House of Commons. It was just a good, old-fashioned "hardware" problem. Bradley didn't have more details on the server or other piece of computer equipment that blew up.

In any event, the House of Commons IT staff fixed things up and systems were by and large back online as of about 1700.

It's heartening to hear that the Conference Board of Canada forecasts economic growth this year for Quebec City, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, and Regina. That's the good news. The bad news is that of the 13 metropolitan areas the Conference Board surveys, more than half -- eight -- will shrink and canada's biggest metropolitan area --- Ontario's Golden Horseshoe incorporating Toronto and Hamilton -- is going to trail all metropolitan areas when it comes to economic growth.

   more »

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said today that "other provinces" are kicking the tires on the idea of blending the PST with the GST ... "I've already heard from other provinces, now that Ontario has done this, that are not harmonized, saying let's talk, we want to move in the same direction. Why? Because they know that that's where the job creation will be and they don't want to be left out."..

   more »

While in New York City today, where he gave interviews to the Financial Times and CNN, Prime Minister Stephen Harper had a telephone conversation with U.S. President Barack Obama. The photo of Harper talking to Obama (left) was taken by the PM's Official Photographer Jason Ransom and distributed to members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery.
Dimitri Soudas, the prime minister's press secretary, sent the following 'read-out' to reporters:
   more »

There's not a whole lot of content there now but, if you're interested and you have a minute to take a peek at it, I'm interested in feedback in terms of usefulness, layout and so on. Why am I doing this?... For many of records, various online services would automatically retrieve album art and other information once I'd dumped the digitized files into iTunes.

   more »

REPORT Magazine is proud to bill itself as "Western Canada's Conservative Voice" and today, Canada's government, on behalf of all taxpayers, were pleased to give "Canada's Conservative Voice" a grant of $27,124. This, of course, was the day after CBC announced about 800 layoffs. For better or worse, CBC is not "Western Canada's Conservative Voice."...

   more »

>For the entire year now, there have been 37 press releases about the NHSP and 36 have been about funding in Conservative-held ridings. It was similar story in 2008 . . .   more »

Prime Minister Stephen Harper will spend two days in the U.S. selling Canada's solution to the global fiscal crisis — fix broken banks and maintain free trade — ahead of crucial meetings with world leaders in London next week. Beginning Sunday, Harper will travel to Washington, New York, London and Strasbourg, France, squeezing in several international media interviews, a meeting with Queen Elizabeth and a celebration of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's 60th anniversary.

   more »

The latest numbers from the federal Department of Finance show that, with just two months remaining in the government's fiscal year (it ends on March 31), Ottawa had a budget surplus of $0.5 billion, compared to a budget surplus of $9.6 billion for the first 10 months of fiscal 2008. Revenues were off by $3.3 billion of 1.7 per cent while program expenses were way up by $7.5 billion or 4.7 per cent. Public debt charges are down, though, by $1.7 billion on a year-over-year basis.

   more »