“We’ve got our mojo back going into the fall,” Liberal MP Scott Brison told the media from the party’s summer caucus in Baddeck, Nova Scotia yesterday. As he arrived on the Liberal Express bus to the meeting, Ignatieff’s again trotted out his new line about how Canadians and Parliament make the rules – not Harper, as he indicated when he pulled his tightly controlled ATV stunt in the North last week.

While in Nova Scotia, Ignatieff had tea with Rita MacNeil (though she’s not openly endorsing anyone), and is apparently toning down the rhetoric, and promises not to declare Harper’s time is up after summer caucus this year, seeing as it worked so well for him last year.

Back in Ottawa, Jack Layton has said that he’ll table a Private Members’ Bill on the long-gun registry, that will have compromises designed to bring those dozen MPs in his party onside to keep them from voting to scrap it. But I’m sure he’ll totally say this wasn’t Ignatieff’s idea. Also, no word yet on which MP is going to give up his or her slot on the Order of Precedence to make this happen. It also gives one pause as to what this will do in the here and now concerning the current bill to scrap the registry that’s coming up for a vote as soon as the House resumes. It also isn’t stopping the Liberals from taking the opportunity to call Layton out, saying that if he doesn’t whip his caucus, the registry is as good as gone. Layton, meanwhile, is apparently holding out hope that he can meet with all the party leaders, and everyone can come to a happy compromise – because Harper is totally prone to governing like that.

Incidentally, the RCMP’s report has been released, finally, and it shows that it’s effective, but misunderstood. Case in point – Conservative MP (and chief apple polisher) Candice Hoeppner immediately came out to say that the report proved that the registry is wasteful and that ineffective. Because they don’t need facts to prove what they already know.

Meanwhile, NDP MPs Bill Siksay and Paul Dewar are renewing calls for nuclear disarmament on what was the First International Day Against Nuclear Tests.

John Baird’s decision not to turn over those staffer emails about the decision to block an Access to Information request hasn’t deterred the opposition, who say they’ll push ahead with demanding them anyway – as is their right as a Parliamentary committee.

Despite rumours that Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is “fuming” about the long-form census changes and the rhetoric about the Tamil migrants, his spokesperson says that he’s not – even though both undermine the ethnic outreach he’s been doing for years. On the other hand, people in Alberta are apparently not happy that he’s been so open in courting those ethnocultural communities either. Kenney himself has dropped from sight, so make of that what you will.

In another “balanced” editorial, the official media arm of The Party’s David Akin says that Ignatieff’s summer tour was playing defence, going to Liberal-dominated provinces like Ontario and even the Yukon. Err, except he apparently didn’t look at the ridings Ignatieff visited, which I’m quite sure have shown to be a greater propensity of ridings the Liberals don’t hold rather than ones they do. But since when does fact get in the way of narrative?

And finally, there’s a new report that shows that Vancouver’s safe injection site works, as well as government-funded research that shows that smoking pot can really help with some kinds of chronic pain. Not that these facts will influence what this government already knows about how drugs are bad.

It’s just three weeks until the House comes back, and I’m getting excited. Meanwhile, the Liberals are having their summer caucus meeting today in Baddeck, Nova Scotia, where they get to deal with the question of a possible autumn election. Susan Delacourt, meanwhile, takes stock of the Liberal Express summer tour, and hints that it’s going to continue into the fall in some form.

As for Harper, he wants you to know that his summer Arctic tour was totally about nation building and not politics. Really! Just look at all his staged photo ops, designed to make him look prime ministerial, to prove it.

Government House Leader John Baird is now blocking the release of emails sent by the former Public Works staffer who blocked that Access to Information request, citing “ministerial responsibility” – which, I will remind you, is an abuse of the term. But committees can demand any documents they want – so are we set for another showdown? Just possibly.

Conservative witness at the Industry Committee hearing on the census issue on Friday actually said that census data obtained “through coercion” was as reliable as information gained through torture – and then brought up the Jedi Knights excuse as proof. Even though that’s a completely bankrupt argument, as mandatory census data is proven the only reliable data, and the Jedi Knight thing is not so easily reduced to ridicule as the Conservatives and their mouthpieces like to point to. And this person once served as the chief executive of a Saskatchewan Regional Health authority? Cute.

And Conservative MP and chief apple-polisher Candice Hoeppner, “author” of the long-gun registry-scrapping bill, similarly believes in the truthiness of the RCMP report on the registry as not making a difference. Because it’s not what the facts say, it’s what we already know. Over in the Toronto Star, Antonia Zerbisias takes a closer look at the long-gun registry issue.

Here's a few photos from this year's Ottawa Pride, with a reminder that yes, Pride still is political.

Mounties

Canadian Forces

Katimavik (who had their funding slashed by the government)

Ottawa mayoral candidate Jim Watson.

Carleton students advocating to end the ban on gay men donating blood.

Ottawa Centre NDP MP Paul Dewar

Campaigning for sex workers' rights

Ottawa Centre Liberal candidate Scott Bradley

Ottawa Centre Liberal MPP Yasir Naqvi

Capital Ward candidate (and former Liberal candidate) Isabel Metcalf

Ottawa Centre Green Party candidate Jen Hunter

Queers Against Israeli Apartheid

Stop Faith-based Bigotry

Happy Pride, everyone!

At a press conference yesterday, Liberal MP John McCallum called out the government for promoting ignorance. Well yes, they have been – where’ve you been the past…five years or so? “Stephen Harper doesn't like to let facts or truth get in the way of his ideological agenda,” McCallum said. “He will stop at nothing to dumb down debate to a catchphrase.” Of course – isn’t that how one talks politics at their local Tim Horton’s?

To that end, the Liberals will be introducing a Private Members’ Bill as soon as the House returns that will make changes to the Statistics Act in order to a) keep the long-form census mandatory, and b) remove the threat of jail time for non-compliance, and keep the penalties restricted to fines. I haven’t heard any indication as to which MP plans to give up their slot for this, and when it’ll appear on the Order of Precedence, but I’ll try to find that out in the next few days.

While certain media outlets and foolish television hosts drooled over images of Stephen Harper on that ATV in the North, let me remind you, he’s riding a four-wheeled ATV on the controlled course of an airport runway, in a huge bulky jacket and bubble helmet. It’s a tightly controlled and eminently safe environment. He’s got a long way to go before he even approaches the manliness of Vladimir Putin – or Barack Obama, for that matter. (Oh, and this counts as dancing? Outside of a junior high school dance? I think these straight white male reporters need to give their heads a shake).

Regarding those alleged terrorist arrests in Ottawa, Vic Toews wants you to be vigilant, while Michael Ignatieff says that we shouldn’t start engaging in witch hunts and walking around feeling menaced. Which narrative do you think will get better play in the media? Oh, and CSIS and the RCMP apparently weren’t simultaneously engaged in turf wars during the investigation and arrests. Good to know.

And it’s Pride in Ottawa this weekend, so I’ll be on the lookout for some politicos out and about. I don’t expect to see too many federal Liberals, however, seeing as they’ll be off to Baddeck, Nova Scotia for their national caucus, which begins Sunday night.

NDP MP Pat Martin, always quotable, came out with a gem on the subject of patronage the other day. “Stephen Harper learned early in his career that patronage is the K-Y Jelly of politics,” Martin said. “You can’t run a country without it.” But can we expand upon that metaphor any? Maybe to say that KY is a particularly inferior lube that only ends up getting sticky right after you apply it? That there are better lubes/appointment systems out there that you really should be using instead? No? Worth a shot.

In what is not exactly a surprise, Liberal immigration critic Maurizio Bevilacqua has announced that he will not seek re-election. He did not announce that he’ll run for mayor in Vaughan, but that’s expected to come sooner than later (along with a full-blown resignation).

Oh, look – Russia’s Arctic policy is really close to Canada’s! This news while Harper is currently in the North rallying the troops. And that “incursion” into our airspace that the PMO sent out frantic emails to the press about yesterday morning is a routine event, and not that they’re trying to create a case for their purchase of new F-35 fighters or anything…

The RCMP report on the gun registry says that it’s efficient – good to know. Meanwhile, Liberal MP Larry Bagnell, one of his party’s most vocal opponents of the gun registry, will in fact be voting with his party to keep it when the House returns. Like Wayne Easter, he too has been swayed by Ignatieff’s talk of a compromise position on the registry. (Of course, he’d better watch out, or Shelly Glover will call him a “flip-flopper” too!)

The science journal Nature has now criticized Harper’s position on the census. Those in favour of the decision – about three. Also, emergency-room doctors are coming out against scrapping the gun registry. But I suppose they’re a bunch of ivory tower elites. Oh, and the publisher of the police industry magazine Blue Line is not happy that the magazine’s forum was used to conduct the non-scientific survey the Conservatives are quoting as “front-line police support” to scrap the registry, but he also wants to remind everyone that the registry is less about preventing gun crime than it is for promoting responsible gun ownership and as an investigative tool when they are stolen or used improperly.

And finally, the BC Superior Court case to determine if laws against polygamy violate religious freedoms will not only consider the fundamentalist Mormon sect of Bountiful, BC, but also Muslims in North America.