• Akin: Jaffer judge is a Tory
• Rahim Jaffer pleads guilty to careless driving
• Rogers Radio talk show host Tom Young: 'This looks like absolute corruption at the highest level'

• Chef makes cheese from wife's breast milk

• Alex Rodriguez's silence is a prescription for trouble
  Carlos Beltran and Jose Reyes admit that they were treated by Tony Galea, the Canadian doctor now being investigated by authorities in both Canada and the United States.

• Jacko guards talking
  MIichael Jackson was a deadbeat when it came to paying his credit card bills, his former bodyguards say in a revealing interview.

• Mariah Carey starts rumour she's pregnant
• Lil Wayne goes to jail over gun charge
• Alice breaks box office record
• Marie and Donny Osmond hold Utah funeral service for Marie's son

D.Martin: At his debut as the dreaded Dr. No to spending in the federal government's deficit elimination push, Treasury Board president Stockwell Day should've at least had the decency to blush at the first tiny nick of his scalpel. MORE...

Rutherford: Treasury Board president Stockwell Day seems to want to avoid a major showdown with union big shots heading up Canada’s various public sector unions. But there’s no way he can. A showdown is inevitable. MORE...

L.Martin:  We always used to knock Stephen Harper’s Conservatives for having no vision. The prime minister wasn’t one for big words and fancy phrases. Tom Flanagan, his former top strategist, spoke of incrementalism as being the favoured approach.  MORE...

McQuaig: One of the few iconic tales of Canadian politics revolves around how Paul Martin, as Liberal finance minister in the 1990s, wrestled the deficit to the ground with his bare hands. While there's some truth to it, the legend sidesteps.. MORE...

Hutton: Despite having spent most of last year arguing that his “tough on crime” agenda was urgently needed, Stephen Harper killed off most of it when he prorogued Parliament. This means the legislation will have to be re-introduced.. MORE...

Yaffe: When all the pomp and formalities are set aside, last week's throne and budget speeches reveal a canny plan that will enable Conservatives to ideally position themselves for a near-term election. It's true that the Liberals made it.. MORE...

Conrad Black: As recent examples show, the American genius for the catchy epigram, the memorable phrase, especially in politics, is inexhaustible. The generally mild Republican Governor of Minnesota, Tim Pawlenty, is an evangelical.. MORE...

• Harper rides Olympic bounce to four-point lead
  Harris-Decima poll puts Conservatives at 33 per cent support compared to 29 for Liberals – but both PM and Ignatieff see leadership ratings drop.

• Harper downplays Afghan torture memo
  Prime Minister Stephen Harper downplayed revelations of a "contingency plan" to deal with accusations that prisoners handed over to Afghan authorities were tortured.

• PMO harpoons Liberal divisions on seal hunt
  The Prime Minister’s Office is accusing Michael Ignatieff of playing politics with the seal hunt and the lives of those who depend on it after a Liberal Senator reintroduced his bill to ban the hunt.

• O'Malley: InevitablePMOTalkingPointWatch: Super Special Seal Hunt Spectacular!
• Liberal Senator Mac Harb determined to end seal hunt

• NAFTA pullout bill fails to scare Ottawa
  Fresh off a recent skirmish over "Buy American," some Canadian cabinet ministers are expressing confidence that a new protectionist push from some U.S. politicians won't succeed.

• American lawmakers look to pull out of NAFTA

• Expect PM to spark an election
  Travers: Facing three tough questions about his government, Stephen Harper has a single answer. The annoying queries are about the politics of stimulus spending, the credibility of last week's rosy federal budget, and complicity in Afghanistan prisoner abuse. The response is a sooner-than-later election.

• Taber: How will Afghan detainee documents be judged?
• Ottawa expected detainee allegations: memo

• Strahl defends 'huge' pension
  Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) calculations of the pensions for former Reformers including Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon MP Chuck Strahl are "out by a mile," according to Strahl.

• Minorities to rise dramatically by 2031: StatsCan
  About one-third of Canada's population – up to 14.4 million people – will be a visible minority by 2031, Statistics Canada projects.

• Tories unveil déjà vu tariff measure
  Taber: For the second consecutive day, the Harper government re-announced measures that were in last week’s budget, declaring today that Canada will become a tariff-free zone for manufacturers.

• Job seekers faced with wary employers
  Jobless recovery becoming reality as estimates say it will take at least another year to restore employment lost in the recession

• NDP MP Peter Stoffer considering running for mayor of Halifax
  Peter Stoffer is considering running for mayor of Halifax Regional Municipality in 2012. "You never know," he said Monday. "I’ve learned in politics, you never say never."

• Ottawa cuts already vacant positions
  Treasury Board President Stockwell Day is trumpeting job cuts at government boards and agencies in the name of fiscal prudence – but the measures are largely phantom restraint because most affected posts are empty and have been for some time.

• Jim Flaherty blasted for $3,100 flight
  Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is under fire for using a costly government jet to fly to London, Ont., for a speech and a photo op at Tim Hortons to promote his belt-tightening budget.

• Ottawa may sell offshore oil stake
  Newfoundland Premier eyeing Hibernia. When a politician says: "that's a good question," it's a rule of thumb that he or she is about to blurt out something they didn't intend to.

• Canadians reject rewording of 'O Canada': poll
  A new poll provides insight into why the Harper government popped its own O Canada trial balloon so quickly last week: massive and immediate public opposition.

• Mulroney heaps praise on Harper's pursuit of Latin American free trade deals
  Former Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney gave a rare thumbs-up to Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Monday night, lauding his aggressive pursuit of free trade in Latin America.

• Booksellers take on Ottawa over Amazon's distribution plans
  Canada's booksellers are urging Ottawa to block Amazon.com from building a distribution network in Canada, raising the stakes in a showdown over government restrictions on foreign control of the cultural industry.

• TTC axes exec and girlfriend
  Project manager John Cursio broke conflict of interest rule by helping Robin Thoen land $50,000 photo job

• Poor ice could cancel seal hunt
  Fisheries officials will review ice data this week and meet with sealers to determine whether poor ice conditions in the Gulf of St. Lawrence mean this year's seal hunt in the area will have to be scrapped..

• Prison building spree expected
  The head of Canada's prison system says there will be "major construction initiatives" in the coming years to cope with the impact of federal legislation to imprison more offenders longer....

• Canada pressured to save Smith from death chamber
  Doubt raised over trial fairness; 'Has expressed deep regret' for killing two Montana men in 1982

• Tears, joy greet Michaëlle Jean in Haiti
  here were tears, hugs and Creole songs as a mobbed Governor General Michaëlle Jean returned to her native Haiti Monday for an emotional tour of the island's wreckage as well as its hopes.

• Car makers should pay for recall fixes: MPs
  Vehicle manufacturers should be forced to pay for repairs during recalls, some MPs said Monday.

• Support for NS NDP takes a tumble
  Poll: Numbers down from historic highs in August but party still ahead. The Dexter government’s numbers are down but still strong overall, suggests a new poll.

• Dalton McGuinty bets big on mining, critics fear eco-disaster
  Premier Dalton McGuinty hopes a massive northern ore deposit will be the motherlode for Ontario's economy but critics are warning of an environmental disaster akin to the Alberta tar sands.

• Canada, U.S. flip-flop positions in Beaufort Sea boundary dispute
  Just days after the Conservative government's throne speech pledged to resolve several outstanding Arctic territorial disputes, polar experts have revealed an unexpected twist in the long-running disagreement over the Canada-U.S. border in the southern Beaufort Sea.

• G8, G20 protesters set to make their points peacefully
  Poverty, women's health top agenda for activists before summits. They aren't the guys wearing black balaclavas.

• Canada needs to turn attention to post-2011 Afghan role: group
  Canada needs to "grow up" and start talking seriously about its role in Afghanistan once its military mission there ends in 2011, says a document to be released at a public event in Ottawa tonight.

• Concussion effects linger for decades, study finds
  She remembers the collision with another player, the fall to the ice, the feeling of dizziness. Skating shakily to the bench, she told her coach she had a concussion.

• Palin says family went to Canada for health care
  Sarah Palin's weekend admission that her family once travelled to Canada to receive treatment under the public health-care system she has so often demonized prompted skepticism and ridicule Monday among her critics in the United States.

• Palin: God writes notes on his hand too