There have been a few stories over the past few days that have raised my ire, so I’m going to take a few minutes to point a few things out. One of them is this CBC story yesterday about Jenny Kwan’s private member’s bill, and that as many as sixteen Liberals are considering supporting it. My beef: the sub-hed on the story reading “Vote would mark first time some in caucus split from government line under Carney.” Split from the government line? It’s a private member’s bill. Those are free votes by default. That’s the whole point of them. CBC should know better, and frankly, I really don’t like it when the media tries to play party whip while at the same time wishing that MPs were more independent.

The other story yesterday was about Conservative MP Dan Albas’ private member’s bill, which purports to empower Canada Post to deliver alcohol across provincial lines. Most of the stories in various outlets talked about how Dominic LeBlanc appeared to support the bill in Question Period, which he actually did not. What LeBlanc said was that this is an area of provincial regulation (which only the Star’s story mentions), but that he would bring it up when he meets with his provincial counterparts in a few weeks because he thinks it’s a good idea. And more to the point, this bill is a gimmick, which Albas and Pierre Poilievre insist overrides provincial regulation, but it actually doesn’t because, and just puts Canada Post in a bind. It would be great if any story could point that fact out, or talked to a lawyer, but nope, they focused on LeBlanc’s answer in QP, and even then couldn’t get the nuance right.

The third is a story from CBC on Monday, which was very concerned that a lot of bills are passing “on division,” meaning without a vote. The problem was the initial sub-hed on the story which stated “Half the bills passed in the House this session have cleared 3rd reading without a head count or consensus,” which is wrong, because “on division” is consensus you don’t need a vote—the “or consensus” was later dropped from the sub-hed. Of course, the real reason is that the Conservatives don’t want to go to an election, so they’re not going to force a vote and have Andrew Scheer and Scott Reid hide behind the curtains again to ensure that the math is right and that they won’t accidentally do something stupid with the vote counts given how everything is so close, but the person you reached as your source for your explainer is Peter Van Loan? Possibly the worst Government House Leader in decades (which is saying a lot)? It came across as amateurish, and like CBC’s parliamentary bureau has a hard time understanding how parliament works, which is not a good look.

When your parliamentary bureau doesn't understand parliament, dumb things happen.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-03-09T13:50:45.982Z

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-03-10T21:22:01.632Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia dropped three guided bombs on Sloviansk in the east, and hit Kharkiv and Dnipro with drones, injuring another twenty people. Ukrainian forces have pushed Russian invaders out of Dnipropetrovsk region, while Russia claims to be making gains in Donbas. Ukraine hit a missile plant in Bryansk region in Russia.

Good reads:

• NDP MP Lori Idlout has crossed over to the Liberals, putting them closer to a majority parliament (especially if they win all three by-elections).
• During Question Period, Mark Carney reiterated that Canada will never participate in offensive operations in Iran.
• The federal government announced $228.8 million over three years in new money for job retraining, particularly in areas hardest hit by tariffs.
• The government successfully moved closure on the hate crime bill, which the Conservatives have been holding up in committee for weeks.
• The Canadian government is “alarmed” by the escalating situation in Lebanon, but there doesn’t currently look like there is going to be a mass evacuation.
• Canada has been limiting the information it shares with the US military in the Caribbean, given the attacks on small boats in the region.
• The Information Commissioner is disappointed by the government’s lack of ambition on Access to Information reform. (Shocking, I know).
• Two suspects fired shots at the US Consulate in Toronto, which is being treated as a national security incident, and possible connections to terrorism.
• A Coast Guard captain was fired after the Labour Board says that he deliberately ignored a distress call.
• Former CBC journalist Travis Dhanraj was one of a number of journalists at Heritage committee, and he repeated his same claims about being “silenced.”
• The Bloc insist they will be fighting the Terrebonne byelection on local issues and not trying to prevent Carney from getting a majority parliament.
• Nova Scotia premier Tim Houston has backed down on several budget cuts that targeted the vulnerable after two weeks of protests, but not any arts funding.
• Michael Kovrig warns against normalising trade relations with China, as they will extract hidden costs that will be detrimental to us over the longer term.
• Lindsay Tedds schools Pierre Poilievre on his bad misreading of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, which he has been misquoting of late.
• Stephen Saideman remarks on what lousy allies the US and Israel have been to one another over the Iran conflict, especially as they seem to have conflicting goals.
• My column calls out Poilievre making promises he can’t keep around future plans to send LNG to Europe (which is never going to happen).

Odds and ends:

My Loonie Politics Quick Take points out why prospective party leaders who don’t already have seats need to run for one as soon as possible.

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