There has been a raft of rumours out about the Senate the past couple of days, the latest being that there could be yet another caucus forming, possibly out yet another split within the Independent Senators Group, because there is some friction over the current leadership—erm, “facilitatorship”—and that is not entirely unsurprising. The ISG is large and unwieldy, and when you have that many type-A people in a room who all have their own ideas on how to do things, and their own agendas, it’s little wonder that they can barely organise themselves to do anything. So we’ll see if this happens, but nevertheless, I can confirm that I’ve heard grumblings about the current state of the ISG.

Meanwhile, there is another rumour circulating, both from the Globe and Mail and iPolitics that prime minister Mark Carney is looking to appoint Tom Pitfield to the Senate—the same Tom Pitfield who won a turf war within the PMO that saw David Lametti take a job as UN ambassador instead of the post he was supposed to take up within PMO. The rumours also state that he would take over as Government Leader in the Senate and take up a seat in Cabinet like the post is supposed to be, but this too is being denied. The source of this rumour also hints that Carney is going to start appointing partisan Liberals to the Senate again, which I’m not necessarily opposed to, provided that there is no expectation of a whip, which never really existed in the Senate before, but with almost no former Liberal senators left, the new batch may be under some false pretences.

Meanwhile, I find myself baffled by the notion that Carney is looking to appoint Pitfield and partisans in order to move bills through the Senate, as though there is obstruction happening there. There is not. Government bills are passing through at a pace that is actually too fast for proper scrutiny in many cases because of an exaggerated sense of faux urgency, while the real problem remains in the House of Commons, which has barely passed any legislation, leaving senators bored and preoccupied with their own hobby-horse bills, and frankly, some of this talk about splitting caucuses is likely a result of that boredom.

Programming Note: I will be taking the full long weekend off. See you next Wednesday.

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia launched a daytime drone attack and killed four people in the central Cherkasy region, damaging more energy infrastructure. Russia also claims to have fully taken control of the Luhansk region, which Ukraine denies. Ukraine struck a missile component factory in Russia’s Bryansk region.

Good reads:

• Mark Carney says he’s still committed to his “green incentives” promise from the election, but there has been no movement on it.
• Anita Anand is joining counterparts from 30 countries to find a diplomatic solution to reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
• Current figures from Public Safety Canada show that some 67,000 firearms have been registered for the buyback programme out of 136,000 budgeted.
• The policy of processing passports in 30 days or it’s free is now in place.
• Here is a look at the proposed early retirement incentives for federal civil servants.
• The government is giving Ukrainians who fled the invasion another year to extend their work permits.
• The Bank of Canada’s deliberations show a dilemma of what to do with rising costs and a sluggish economy.
• The CEO of TC Energy thinks that government should rubber-stamp natural gas and pipeline projects, and limit people who participate in reviews. (I’m shocked!)
• The Pathways Project is trying to get government to pay for the whole thing, because that was always the grift. (And Carney just might do it too).
• Businesses in Alberta who want to use temporary foreign workers will need to register with the province, duplicating existing federal processes.
• The sponsor of the separatist petition in Alberta claims he has enough signatures to move to a referendum (which Danielle Smith will help him with, no doubt).
• Marcello Di Cintio delves into Alberta’s separatist movement, sees the explicit white and Christian nationalism, and the conspiracy theory grievances all out in the open.
• Supriya Dwivedi points to recent court decisions in the US against Meta and its algorithms as a roadmap for future online harms legislation in Canada.
• My column looks through some of Avi Lewis’ promises and notes the sense of unreality that pervades many of them.

Odds and ends:

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