After Thomas Mulcair indicated that he’d been approached by a couple of Senators who would be willing to help him pass his agenda, we now get a couple of names – Liberal Senator Larry Campbell, and Conservative Senator Nancy Ruth, though the latter isn’t talking about it (and personally I wonder why she would volunteer considering how shoddily she’s been treated by the NDP after she made that joke about camembert, and yes, it was a joke). But it’s not quite as cut-and-dried as Mulcair seemed to make it out to be. Campbell, in an interview with CBC, said he’d be willing to ensure that bills get due credit, but that’s not exactly putting oneself in the position of shepherding through an entire NDP agenda. I also have my doubts when Campbell says that the Senate doesn’t need a leader of the government and a leader of the opposition, largely because it clashes with our system of Responsible Government. The current framework allows for Senators to hold the government to account in the way that MPs can, by asking questions of a member of cabinet – nominally the leader of the government in the Senate, never mind the fact that Harper’s current leader is not in cabinet because he churlishly is trying to distance himself from the Senate. And one of the most underrated ways in which Senators perform this accountability is in the leader’s ability to take questions on notice and provide written responses. Losing this ability would be a blow to the Senate’s accountability function, which is a vital part of their role of Sober Second Thought. You need answers from government if you are to properly consider their legislative agenda, and losing that conduit is going to hamper that ability. Campbell and Senate Liberal whip Jim Munson also mused about making the Senate Speaker elected by the chamber, but I’m not sure how easily this can be accomplished considering that the Senate Speaker has duties beyond what the Commons Speaker does in terms of protocol and diplomatic duties, which is one of the reasons it’s a Governor-in-Council appointment. He or she is the “Queen’s man” (or woman as the case may be) for a reason, and there may be a lot of hoops to jump through in order to make that change. I’m not saying it’s not doable, but it may not be easily doable – particularly if you have an NDP prime minister who has no interest in doing anything for the Senate. Suffice to say, it’s not enough for Mulcair to use these couple of senators as an excuse to ignore his constitutional obligations.

On the campaign:

• Stephen Harper promised a new “tax lock” law to keep from raising any taxes for the next four years. The new balanced budget law, anyone?
• Thomas Mulcair promised help for the forestry sector.
• Justin Trudeau promised more family reunification for immigration, and also sent out an open letter to public servants.

Good reads:

• More French-language debate analysis from Michael Den Tandt, Paul Wells, and Martin Patriquin, plus video from Mark Kennedy and Kady O’Malley.
• The old fans of Rob Anders in his riding are promising to vote Libertarian instead of for Ron Liepert.
• Trudeau has reiterated that he would look at repealing some mandatory minimum sentences.
• Concerns that Saudia Arabia plans to behead and crucify a young man has Harper defending our contract to supply arms to that country.
• Patriquin has an excellent long-read about Gerald Butts, the man behind Trudeau.
• The low dollar and the rapidly changing pace of technology will have an impact on new military equipment costs.
• TPP negotiations could spell a blow for Supply Management for real this time.
• Aaron Wherry writes about this is becoming the niqab election.
• CBC tries to fact-check the whole Mulcair bulk water exports fracas.
• In the third and final part of his series on imaging parties defence platforms, Stephen Saideman looks at the Conservatives.
• Susan Delacourt looks at the potential roles the Liberal and NDP campaign directors may have after an election in a minority situation.
• Scott Gilmour writes a scathing piece about the Conservatives internalizing their culture of fear.

Odds and ends:

The Ottawa Citizen got a draft copy of incumbent MP Royal Galipeau’s candidate application form.

A couple of Liberal candidates may have been 9/11 Truthers, but say they no longer are.