Parliament is back today, and to set the stage, Stephen Harper delivered a speech to supporters in Ottawa to announce that he would balance the budget, deliver new anti-terror legislation by Friday, and generally set the pre-election stage that this sitting is going to consist of. Because if there’s anything Canadians are really looking forward to, it’s a nine-month-long campaign. Meanwhile, can someone please point out to me where exactly a Liberal government dramatically hiked taxes, as Harper claimed? Because I’m drawing a blank on that one.

Good reads:

• That new promised anti-terror legislation has civil liberties groups nervous, because it seems to be aimed at lowering thresholds, which is a fraught proposition.
• It looks like we can also look forward to useless and gimmicky balanced budget legislation, because we need more unnecessary laws on our books.
• Jason Fekete gives a rundown of issues we can look forward to in this parliamentary sitting.
• Parties are still learning how to deal with hateful and offensive comments posted to their Facebook pages.

Odds and ends:

Veteran BC NDP MLA Jenny Kwan wants to run in Vancouver East, and former CBC host Jo-Ann Roberts wants to run for the Green Party in Victoria.

Here is the interesting tale of a Mountie who is turning his hand to writing crime thrillers.

https://twitter.com/punditsguide/status/559508737711300609