Dawning of Day 35: WikiLeaks hits Ottawa

It’s Day 35 of the election campaign. While most of Canada pays attention to the royal wedding, Stephen Harper is in Montreal, Michael Ignatieff is in Val d’or, and Jack Layton is in Kamloops.

Yesterday, WikiLeaks released a dump of cables, which were originally sent to Washington from the US Embassy in Ottawa. So far, we’ve learned that embassy staff have kept tabs on Laureen Harper and the various political parties, questioned Ignatieff’s leadership, commented on Harper’s “about face” in stacking the Senate, and criticized the tough-on-crime agenda and the land claims process.

Here’s a look at just what happened to those guarantees on surgical wait times. (Spoiler alert: not much.)

For everyone who laments Ottawa’s question period, it looks like Alberta’s QP has degenerated to the point that they’re lobbing everything short of F-bombs across the aisle.

Nelly Furtado encourages Canadians to vote.

And constitutional expert Peter Russell fears that giving Harper a majority will simply reward his contempt for Parliament and put democracy on a dangerous path.

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