1. Steel-toe trio. Industry Minister Tony Clement says he, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Infrastructure Minister Chuck Strahl are merely "touring infrastructure" projects Thursday morning. But is he holding something back?
The Conservative trio is spending an entire hour in Mississauga for an event, which involves media wearing steel-toe boots, and then the Prime Minister is scheduled to speak. Is Mr. Harper planning to announce an extension of the deadline for stimulus funding? Or is this just a run of the mill visit?
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has so far resisted demands from provinces and municipalities to extend the March cut-off for infrastructure projects.
But Thursday's visit comes on the heels of a damning report from budget watchdog Kevin Page, who surveyed stimulus projects and found that while a lot of money was spent few jobs were created.
New Democrats have been critical of the program and has called for stimulus to be extended. In a scrum with reporters Wednesday, NDP Leader Jack Layton accused the Prime Minister of sugarcoating the job situation. He said the stimulus program has created mostly part-time positions.
"Had they used a better approach, had they transferred one cent per litre of the gas tax, for example, as we proposed so that it could move more quickly, had there been greater accountability on the jobs creation front and more focus on that as opposed to the kind of pork approach that they seem to take, I think we might have had better results," Mr. Layton said.
2. Honest brokers. David Jacobson is doing damage control, poring over thousands of cables and documents made public in the WikiLeaks scandal, searching for potential diplomatic landmines.
The U.S. Ambassador to Canada concedes this isn't the "happiest week I've ever had." But he doesn't see anything that will damage relations between Ottawa and Washington.
"I don't think that there really is going to be any long-term impact," the Ambassador told The Globe and Mail on Thursday morning. "Obviously this is not a happy time for us but as the Foreign Minister has made clear … the relationship with the United States is strong and it will remain strong."
Mr. Jacobson doesn't think "there is going to be a huge impact there." And he doesn't buy the " inferiority complex" perception that has been suggested in some of the documents.
He's traveled extensively throughout Canada. "I see a country that is full of people who are justifiably proud of their country and I, yeah, I've heard people say this in the past but I think it's yesterday's news."
However, he warned about other relationships around the world that are not as strong. "I think there you may see an impact," Mr. Jacobson said. "... I think people's lives have been put at risk around the world and the stealing of these documents and the breach of our security is shameful."
Although the U.S. Ambassador is confident the good relationship between Canada and his country will survive this, The Globe and Mail is reporting Thursday some of the more dire consequences of the leaks. Ottawa's envoy to Kabul, William Crosbie, has offered his resignation.
And Mr. Jacobson says it "would be tragic" if the leaking of documents in anyway affected the relationship between Canada, the United States and Afghanistan.
"We're going to have to see how this plays out and we're going to have ask that of people over there who are more familiar with the nuance than I am," he said. "But I will say this, the job of diplomats is to be honest with one another. That's how we get things done. And it would a shame whether it is in Afghanistan or Canada or China or anywhere else if people suffered because two diplomats are being honest with one another."