Senator Mac Harb pays back $231,000 in expenses, retires

Mac Harb is stepping down from the Senate, dropping his legal action and repaying the remaining $180,000 the Senate says he owes for inappropriate living and travel expense claims.

Harb, who was a Liberal senator until his spending came under scrutiny through an external audit, had already paid back $51,482.90. He did so under protest and had asked the court for a judicial review of the order from the Senate to pay money back.

In a news release Monday, Harb said he delivered a cheque to the chair of the Senate standing committee on internal economy for $180,166.17. That means he's repaid a total of $231,649.07.

The Senate confirmed in a press release late Monday that Harb had provided the cheque. The press release said that total amount includes $38,758.59 in interest.

Harb took out loans to repay the expenses, Harb's lawyer told CBC News. The Canadian Press reported earlier this month that an Ottawa businessman had loaned Harb $230,000.

"As has been previously reported, Senator Harb had already obtained significant loans to deal with his Senate expense issues," Paul Champ said.

"Most of the money came from that, as he will not be needing it for his legal case. However, it was necessary to obtain another loan to cover the full amount. However, all financial transactions have been reported to the Senate, as required."

Speaking to CBC News, Harb said he "is relieved after 28 years in public service to become a private citizen. The last couple of months have been very hard," he told the CBC's Hannah Thibedeau, adding that he is relieved to move forward.

Harb qualifies for full pension

Harb, who was the MP for Ottawa Centre for 15 years until he was appointed to the Senate in 2003, maxed out on his parliamentary pension in 2007. He was also a city councillor in Ottawa prior to becoming an MP.

A spokesman for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation says Harb can collect his full MP pension immediately. That's worth $122,989 a year and is fully indexed, Gregory Thomas told CBC News.

The pension over Harb's lifetime could be worth "$5,020,790... assuming living [until] age 90 which is average life span of pension plan members. In the event of his passing, his surviving spouse will collect 60 per cent of his pension for life, which is not included in this calculation," Thomas wrote in an email.

In May, the Senate internal economy committee said Harb owed $51,000 in expenses claimed over the past two years. He subsequently left the Liberal caucus. In June, Harb was sent a letter ordering him to pay that amount.

The Senate also advised Harb to repay a total of more than $231,000 claimed since 2005 or face an extensive audit of his expense claims over that period.

His expenses were controversial because of his claim that a home near Pembroke, Ont., is his primary residence. Senators whose primary residence is at least 100 kilometres from Ottawa are permitted to charge living and travel expenses.

RCMP investigating expenses

The RCMP is looking into Harb's spending and in court documents filed earlier this summer, an investigator said he believes the senator really lives in Ottawa and should not have claimed the housing and travel expenses over the years.

Champ says the RCMP haven't asked to speak to Harb.

Harb reiterated in his statement that the Senate internal economy committee treated him "very unfairly," and said he wanted "to make the point that every Canadian, even senators, should be entitled to due process."

"I always followed Senate rules on expenses, and filed my expense claims in a timely and transparent manner. At no time did anyone suggest my claims were invalid or questionable. And from what I could tell, most Senators made similar claims."

Champ said in a statement that the "Tory-dominated" Senate committee is to blame for retroactively applying "its own vague definition of residence, with criteria that are not set out in any Senate rules or policies."

"It's sad, but my client became a casualty of the hyper partisan atmosphere that prevails in Ottawa right now," Champ said.

The committee also ordered Conservative-appointed senators Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau to repay inappropriate expenses they claimed. Wallin and Senator Mike Duffy resigned from the Conservative caucus over the expenses scandal. Brazeau was kicked out of caucus after being arrested and charged with an unrelated offence. Duffy repaid his expenses before independent auditors finished their report into his spending.

Brazeau and Duffy are also being investigated by the RCMP for their expense claims, according to court documents. The Senate committee referred Wallin's audit to the RCMP.

Senate Liberal Leader James Cowan says he respects Harb's decision and that the two didn't discuss it.

While the NDP is calling for the three Conservative-appointed senators to resign, Cowan said that in Canada, people are presumed innocent until it's proven otherwise.

"I think that these individuals have their own decisions to make," he said.

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Roméo Dallaire 'embarrassed' over mix-up with fringe group

Senator Roméo Dallaire has pulled out of a speaking engagement organized by a fringe Catholic group accused of anti-Semitism, but his name is still being promoted alongside those of anti-abortionists, conspiracy theorists and former U.S. presidential candidate Ron Paul.

A Dallaire aide said Monday that the retired Canadian Forces general was "embarrassed" and "really unhappy" to have been accidentally mixed up with a southern Ontario group called the Fatima Centre, which is organizing a conference next month in Niagara Falls, Ont.

The Fatima Centre is a Catholic organization whose publications include references to "the duty incumbent upon Catholics of... opposing Jewish Naturalism" and to "Satan's plans against the Church," which include "the granting of full citizenship to the Jews." The Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center, a non-profit that lists organizations it deems to be hate groups, says the Fatima Centre is part of a movement that is "perhaps the single largest group of hard-core anti-Semites in North America."

Other speakers scheduled for the conference include the president of the U.S.-based John Birch Society, a right-wing American group that campaigns against the U.S. Federal Reserve, says the UN is trying to control "all human activity" and claims Nelson Mandela is "carrying forward a communist program of terrorism and genocide."

The conference's keynote speaker is Paul, the former U.S. congressman and three-time candidate for president. Photos of Paul and Dallaire feature in ads for the conference on the internet and on a billboard near the Peace Bridge to the U.S.

"There is absolutely no way that General Dallaire would be associated with these speakers," his personal secretary, David Hyman, said in an interview Monday.

Hyman said it stemmed from an oversight. The senator's appearance at the conference was booked last March through the agency that arranges his speaking engagements, the National Speakers Bureau.

But when the agency called, they named a different group that was seeking to have the former lieutenant-general come and speak about the Rwandan genocide.

"It was called the National Pilgrim Virgin of Canada. We didn't have a clue that this other organization that were sponsoring his talk had anything to do with Fatima," Hyman said.

In fact, National Pilgrim Virgin of Canada is the official name for the Fatima Centre.

Dallaire's staff only found out last week through a civil rights lawyer.

"He said, 'Do you know who this group is? I'm really disappointed that the senator is going to this conference,' " Hyman said. "And I looked, I went to their site, I downloaded the list of other speakers and started to look at them."

Hyman blames himself for the lack of due diligence.

"I should have Googled."

'Not against the Jews'

A conference organizer said there was absolutely no intent to deceive because "everybody knows us as the Fatima Centre."

Coralie Graham, who is also one of the centre's directors, said they've been assured they will be refunded Dallaire's appearance fee, but they're still out the cost of their Dallaire advertising, which they will have to scotch.

Graham also affirmed that the Fatima Centre is in no way anti-Semitic and has been the victim of smear campaigns and guilt by association.

"We are not against the Jews and never have been and never will be," she said by phone.

"It doesn't matter whether it's Jewish, it's Catholics, it's politics: There's always good guys and a couple bad guys, so when you're speaking about some wrongs, you're not painting the whole race with the same brush."

As for the conference speakers from the John Birch Society, Graham said the Fatima Centre isn't affiliated with the group, but just booked lectures on the conference theme of peace.

"It's just a case of our speakers have been selected that have something to say to the people that this is happening in the world, and take off your rose-coloured glasses and see it, people. Because we have a crisis in the world. I've heard that all the generals are saying there's going to be World War III."

Responding to the incident, the Toronto-based Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs said in a statement that it was "concerned by anti-Jewish content" on some websites affiliated with the Fatima Centre and that "it's important that people of good will — particularly public officeholders — distance themselves from such extremism."

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Senate scandal creates no paper trail in PM’s own department

The Senate expenses scandal may have generated a lot of headlines this year, but apparently it hadn't prompted a single email, memo or even a sticky-note in Stephen Harper's own department by the height of the controversy in June.

The Privy Council Office, the bureaucracy that serves the prime minister's operations, reported in June it did not have a single document of any description related to the scandal involving senators Mike Duffy, Patrick Brazeau, Mac Harb and Pamela Wallin or others involved in the controversy, including Harper's former chief of staff Nigel Wright.

This revelation came in response to requests by reporters and others using the Access to Information Act to obtain all documents in the possession of the Privy Council relating to the Senate scandal.

The Privy Council website indicates a total of 23 such requests about the Senate had been processed by June.

Every one of the requests yielded "zero" pages, and a notation that the information requested "does not exist."

Here's a look at the unsuccessful requests:

A-2013-00075	All correspondence between Nigel Wright and Senator Mike Duffy or Janice Payne from February 1, 2013 to 22 May 2013	Does not exist	0
A-2013-00076	All correspondence between Benjamin Perrin and Senator Mike Duffy or Janice Payne from February 1, 2013 to 22 May 2013	Does not exist	0
A-2013-00077	All records related to Senator Mike Duffy from February 1, 2013 to 22 May 2013	Does not exist	0
A-2013-00080	2013 records on assisting Senators whose residency and travel or other expenses have been challenged	Does not exist	0

A-2013-00085

Documents concerning an agreement concluded with Mike Duffy, including the agreement itself, between January 1, 2013, and May 22, 2013

Does not exist

0

A-2013-00099	Documents from Wayne Wouters to Prime Minister Stephen Harper on the topic of the payment between Nigel Wright and Sen. Mike Duffy, for the period Jan. 1, 2013 to May 17, 2013.	Does not exist	0
A-2013-00101	All communications from the Clerk of the Privy Council to the Prime Minister from 1 January 2013 to 28 May 2013 on Senators' expense claims and the investigation by the Senate into expense by Senators	Does not exist	0
A-2013-00103	All records referencing Sen. Mike Duffy from Feb. 15, 2013 to March 1, 2013	Does not exist	0
A-2013-00104	All records referencing Sen. Mike Duffy from March 2, 2013 to March 31, 2013	Does not exist	0
A-2013-00105	All records referencing Sen. Mike Duffy from April 1, 2013 to April 30, 2013	Does not exist	0
A-2013-00106	All records referencing Sen. Mike Duffy from May 1, 2013 to May 29, 2013	Does not exist	0
A-2013-00107	All records referencing Sen. Pamela Wallin from February 1, 2013 to May 29, 2013	Does not exist	0
A-2013-00108	All records referencing Sen. Mac Harb from February 1, 2013 to May 29, 2013	Does not exist	0
A-2013-00109	All records referencing Sen. Patrick Brazeau from February 1, 2013 to May 29, 2013	Does not exist	0
A-2013-00110	All records referencing Sen. Patrick Brazeau from November 1, 2012 to Jan. 31, 2013	Does not exist	0
A-2013-00113	All correspondence between Nigel Wright and Senators David Tkachuk, Marjory LeBreton or Carolyn Stewart-Olsen from February 1, 2013 to May 30, 2013	Does not exist	0
A-2013-00114	Any contract, letter of understanding or letter of intent signed with Senator Mike Duffy or Janice Payne from February 1, 2013 to May 30, 2013	Does not exist	0

A-2013-00125	Emails sent and received by Nigel Wright referring to Senator Mike Duffy between May 1, 2013 and May 29, 2013	Does not exist	0
A-2013-00126	Emails sent and received by Nigel Wright referring to Senator Mike Duffy between February 18, 2013, and February 25, 2013	Does not exist	0

A-2013-00130	The total number of times that Mr. Nigel Wright abstained from participating in any matters or issues set out in his Public Declaration	Does not exist	0
A-2013-00131	All records related to Senator Mike Duffy's and Senator Pamela Wallin's expenses	Does not exist	0
A-2013-00132	Question Period notes regarding Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin, Nigel Wright or expenses in the Senate between May 13, 2013 and May 31, 2013	Does not exist	0

A-2013-00139

Records related to Senator Mike Duffy's and Senator Pamela Wallin's expenses

Does not exist

0

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NDP determined to abolish Senate, Mulcair says

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair today began a cross-country tour to spread his party's message that the Senate is full of unelected party hacks who have no business writing Canada's laws and should be abolished.

Mulcair launched his "roll up the red carpet" campaign by delivering a speech on Parliament Hill, ahead of travelling to Halifax later Monday.

"Today we're here to mark the beginning of the end of a discredited, outdated and undemocratic institution," Mulcair said during the speech.

The NDP has long called for the Senate to be scrapped, and Mulcair said Canadians are now catching on to that idea and it's time to abolish it "once and for all."

"Unelected party hacks have no place writing or rewriting the laws of this country. It's as simple as that," he said.

Mulcair said he will consult with Canadians and work with the provinces and territories to get the upper chamber abolished.

'Drunk with entitlement and power'

"We're determined to get this done and we will get this done," he said.

Mulcair said the Liberals, when they were in power, and now the Conservatives have fostered a culture of entitlement when it comes to their Senate appointments, and the NDP is the only party that can fix Ottawa.

"It's hard to be a place of sober second thought when you are drunk with entitlement and power," he said about the Senate.

Speaking to reporters after his speech, Mulcair said the recent spending scandals involving senators Patrick Brazeau, Mike Duffy, Mac Harb and Pamela Wallin have prompted Canadians to reflect on the Senate.

"Canadians deserve better," he said.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government has referred questions about Senate reform to the Supreme Court of Canada. It has asked whether Parliament can enact fixed terms for senators, for either eight, nine or 10 years, or the life of two or three Parliaments of four years each.

Another question put to the court by the government is whether the Constitution can be amended by Parliament to ensure that the provinces are consulted about Senate appointments.

Additionally, the top court has been asked about the constitutionality of abolishing the Senate, specifically, whether abolition would require the support of seven provinces with 50 per cent of Canada's population, or unanimous support from all 10 provinces.The government argues that unanimous consent isn't needed.

"Canadians understand that our Senate, as it stands today, must either change or, like the old upper houses of our provinces, vanish," Pierre Poilievre, the minister of state for democratic reform, said Monday in a statement to CBC News following Mulcair's speech.

Mulcair was also asked about the situation in Syria when he took questions from the media, and he said that if Canada is considering intervention, Parliament has to be reconvened.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper plans to ask Gov. Gen. David Johnston to prorogue Parliament, which would mean MPs would not return to Ottawa on Sept.16 as scheduled.

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Syrian rebels told to expect Western-led strike in days

Syrian opposition leaders have been told to brace for a foreign strike against President Bashar al-Assad's regime within days, according to sources who attended a meeting with the Syrian National Council in Turkey.

"The opposition was told in clear terms that action to deter further use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime could come as early as in the next few days, and that they should still prepare for peace talks at Geneva," one of the sources who was at the meeting on Monday told Reuters.

Reuters reported that the notice came from "Western powers" and that Syrian opposition leaders have also handed over a wish list of targets should a possible strike be imminent.

The U.S. navy has four destroyers positioned in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, within range of targets in Syria, according to the U.S. Department of Defence. American warplanes are already in the region.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem, however, warned that any U.S. or European military intervention would also be met with force through "all available means."

Moallem addressed a news conference Tuesday after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry stopped short of saying President Barack Obama was ready to take military action in Syria.

Kerry has strongly condemned what he called "undeniable" evidence that Syria launched a chemical attack last week that killed hundreds of people in three Damascus suburbs — a claim that a special UN convoy began investigating on Monday but that Syria has denied.

'We will surprise everyone'

But Moallem told reporters in Damascus that any possible military intervention from foreign governments would be met with a show of force from the regime.

"We have the means to defend ourselves and we will surprise everyone," Moallem told reporters in Damascus. "We will defend ourselves using all means available. I don't want to say more than that," he said.

The UN, which sent a convoy of investigators to Damascus on Monday to launch a probe into whether chemical weapons were used by Syria last week, says more than 100,000 people have been killed since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began more than two years ago.

A second round of UN inspections that was to begin Tuesday has been pushed back until at least Wednesday due to a dispute with rebels about security arrangements, he added. The UN confirmed the delay.

Moallem blamed the delay on rebel fighters, claiming that the opposition has not yet promised safe passage to the UN experts, and that the inspections will not be able to proceed until at least Wednesday as a result. Moallem did not elaborate on the postponement of the UN trip.

Assad has denied launching a chemical attack, blaming "terrorists" for the incident.

However, the regime prevented UN inspectors from visiting the site of the Aug. 21 attack until Monday. The team reached the site despite coming under fire from a sniper and was able to speak with survivors and physicians who treated the victims. They also used instruments to try to determine what chemical agent was used.

On Monday, Kerry said Obama has been in close touch with key Western allies, and "will be making an informed decision about how to respond" to what the U.S. considers indiscriminate use of toxic agents against civilians.

"Make no mistake," Kerry added. "President Obama believes there must be accountability for those who would use the world's most heinous weapons against the world's most vulnerable people."

Two administration officials said the U.S. was expected to make public a more formal determination of chemical weapons use on Tuesday, with an announcement of Obama's response likely to follow quickly. The officials insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the internal deliberations.

U.S. Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel told BBC News in an interview that the U.S. military is in position to move as soon as the commander in chief gives the go-ahead.

"We are ready to go, just like that," he said.

Canada is weighing all options, and Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Thomas Lawson is in a third day of key military meetings with joint chiefs of staff in Jordan. The purpose of the meeting is to ensure the allied mlitary chiefs are able to devise a strategy for containing any possible conflict to Syria and preventing spillover into neighbouring regions.

Britain recalls Parliament for Syria talks

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said Canada is "incredibly outraged" by the purported use of chemical weapons in Syria, and that a "firm response" from the international community should be expected.

While Baird has expressed a preference for a UN mandate, he has not ruled out any role Canada might play in a possible military strike.

In London, British Prime Minister David Cameron has recalled Parliament for an urgent discussion on a possible military response to the alleged chemical attack in Syria.

Cameron says the crisis session will be held Thursday, when Parliament would traditionally be on its summer recess.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters on Tuesday the gas attack constituted "a crime against humanity and a crime against humanity should not go unanswered. What needs to be done must be done. Today, it is clear the international community is faced with a test."

'President Obama believes there must be accountability for those who would use the world's most heinous weapons against the world's most vulnerable people.'—U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry

It's unclear whether Obama would seek authority from the United Nations or Congress before using force. The president has spoken frequently about his preference for taking military action only with international backing, but it is likely Russia and China would block U.S. efforts to authorize action through the UN Security Council.

The U.S. State Department on Monday postponed a meeting scheduled for Wednesday in The Hague between senior diplomats from the United States and Russia due to "ongoing consultations" over the chemical weapons attack in Syria.

"We will work with our Russian counterparts to reschedule the meeting," the senior official said, adding that the chemical weapons attack demonstrated the need for a "comprehensive and durable political solution" to end the bloodshed.

Russia responded on Tuesday that it regretted the decision.

With files from The Associated Press, Reuters

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Finance minister cautious on Canada's economy

Canada's GDP growth is up, our bonds are rated triple A, the U.S. economy is improving and even the eurozone is in recovery, but Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is still urging caution.

"We live in a tenuous world. It's a difficult world. I know the eurozone had a positive quarter, but I think that's really tentative. The U.S. recovery seems modest at best," he said in an interview with Amanda Lang of CBC's The Lang & O'Leary Exchange.

"Our recovery is solid, but it's modest so we have to be cautious, and we are being cautious in terms of our spending," he said.

Flaherty was speaking after meeting with a group of CEOs, academics and non-profit leaders in Wakefield, Que., an annual tradition for the finance minister and a means for him assess the mood in the business community and hear new ideas. Lang was the only media representative at the meeting.

But there was little new in the budget priorities Flaherty outlined after the meeting. He said the key to giving Canada room to manoeuvre is still balancing the budget.

"First of all, stay the course, which means we have to balance the budget in 2015. We really need to do that in order to have the confidence of Canadian business and to have Canada in the position where we can respond to crises that come from outside Canada," Flaherty told Lang in the video interview Thursday.

"So we were in that position back in 2008 when our great recession started, and we will be in that position again."

Flaherty said he would like the provinces, particularly the eastern provinces, to move more quickly to balance their own budgets and bring down public debt.

He also said he would like to lower taxes.

"We have low taxes, low corporate taxes, which is good. I think I'd like to lower taxes more overall, but we have to at the same time balance the budget," Flaherty said.

Flaherty added that he does not believe it is the right time to stimulate the economy in the hopes of spurring job growth and investment.

"We have to be wary of inflation. I think the Americans are taking a big risk in terms of quantitative easing, so-called. We have not gone down that path in Canada. I don't believe in it. We've had those debates internationally," he said.

The U.S. is keeping its rates low by buying back bonds and mortgage-backed securities in a program that costs $85 billion a month.

Though Flaherty's approach sounds very like the cautious economic plan he has followed over the last two years, the finance minister said he did get some new ideas from the Wakefield confab.

"To hear from CEOs, top people, academics, people from the private sector about what they're concerned about is very helpful to me in preparing the budget for next year," he said.

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Greg Weston: Why Harper says he's running again, and why he might not

Stephen Harper had only been Conservative opposition leader a few weeks when he summoned his then shadow cabinet, and offered an unexpected warning to anyone who might someday get the urge to replace him.

"Learn French," a former senior official recalls Harper advising any would-be successors in the room.

"And, for sure, be patient because he planned to become prime minister and stay there for a very long time."

Nine years later, all evidence suggests Harper retains an iron grip on his party's leadership, and there are no reports of wannabe successors lining up for French lessons.

Yet, for the first time since Harper moved into the Prime Minister's Office seven years ago, speculation about his possible retirement before the next election in 2015 has now become part of the routine chatter in political circles.

This week, CBC asked a dozen Conservative strategists, staffers and other insiders whether they thought Harper would stay for the next election.

The bets were almost evenly split, albeit most opinions were couched with all kinds of caveats and general uncertainty.

This week, reporters raised the issue with the prime minister publicly while he was on his annual summer tour of the Arctic, asking Harper point-blank if he would be leading the Conservatives to the polls just over two years from now.

He sounded almost offended by the query.

"Of course," he replied. "I'm actually disappointed you feel the need to ask that question."

One Toronto columnist used Harper's statement to dismiss the whole notion of any possible early retirement as largely the product of idle media minds trying to fill the summer news doldrums.

But there's a lot more than media mischief fuelling so much speculation in high places.

First and foremost, the Conservatives are in a heap of political trouble that has clearly damaged the party's standings in the opinion polls.

While this isn't the first hit the Harper administration has taken in the past few years, the difference this time is that the Conservatives are showing no signs of rebounding with voters.

If that downward trend in popularity continues well into 2014, what will Harper do if he is staring at an election from the basement of public opinion?

The devil they know

A number of Conservative strategists we surveyed were adamant Harper will fight the next election come hell or high water — or sagging polling numbers.

They point out that his primary political goal remains the destruction of the Liberals and ensuring that the Conservatives become the "natural governing party" of this century.

Can he beat the new gunslinger in town? (Canadian Press)

And they believe that a Harper-led election campaign, backed by the forever well-funded and ferocious Conservative attack machine, would damage if not devastate Justin Trudeau and the Liberals, leaving moderate swing voters with no choice but to hold their nose and vote for the devil they know.

At the very least, those convinced that Harper will stay argue that, in the likely event the next election will be fought on the economy, Trudeau will have a tough time convincing voters he is the best leader to manage their money.

Finally, Harper boosters say he simply likes being prime minister, and that it is not in his DNA to quit in the face of adversity — nor admit there might be someone in the Conservative ranks better suited to lead the party through this next election.

On the other hand, there is an equally powerful argument that Harper is the ultimate political tactician, and if he sees the writing on the wall a year from now and it spells possible defeat, he may want to quit to give the party a fighting chance under a new leader.

The inevitable downside of all those millions of dollars the Conservatives poured into branding the "Harper government" means that when things go badly for the administration, the prime minister wears it.

And when things go very badly, or voters just get tired of the same old government in power, changing leaders is an obvious fix.

Checking off boxes

Those who have come to believe Harper may quit before the next trip to the polls point out that one of his most important considerations — perhaps even the most important — is whether he will have completed his personal mission.

Harper can certainly check off a lot of the boxes.

He has successfully merged conservatives into a single new party that has now won three federal elections, the last one by a decisive majority.

He has also presided over the creation of a modern, efficient political machine that will be tough for any party to beat.

While many core Conservatives have been disappointed Harper didn't drive the party further to the right, he has managed to implement much of the Reform-Alliance agenda without alienating moderate swing voters critical to winning elections.

If the government can stay on track to balance the books by the current target, 2015-16, history will likely afford him at least a passing grade for fiscal prudence.

Unlike some of his prime ministerial predecessors, Harper is not a leader of grandiose visions — his incremental politics is specifically designed to bring about change in small steps.

As a result, he could retire a year from now with not a lot left on his governing to-do list.

Harper may not be able to say he fulfilled his dream of destroying the Liberal party and taking down a Trudeau, too.

But reducing the Liberals to 34 seats and third-party status the last time out was still an electoral rout of historic proportion.

Of course, no one knows what Harper will decide to do a year from now, much less why.

He may decide to quit politics for family reasons.

Or he may decide to stay simply because he loves the job.

And if Harper does decide to step down as prime minister and Conservative leader before the next election, who will really care that this week he said he wouldn't?

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Trudeau's pot 'actions speak for themselves,' Harper says

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau says reaction to his admission he smoked pot once after becoming an MP shows the government is "offside from public opinion."

Trudeau said in an interview published Thursday that he smoked marijuana about three years ago, after becoming an MP, and also revealed his brother Michel faced a possession charge before his death in an avalanche.

Trudeau said his brother's legal trouble over a small quantity of marijuana was one of the experiences that influenced what he has called an "evolution" in his thinking on marijuana laws.

Trudeau downplayed his use of pot when speaking with reporters in Quebec City on Thursday.

"I have not taken other drugs, I have been in my past a very rare user of marijuana, I think five or six times in my life that I've taken a puff — it's not my thing. I think I'm in more trouble for admitting that I don't drink coffee on social media today.

"But the reality is that this is an example where we have a government that is completely offside from public opinion from even where the chiefs of police are from what we saw in their announcement yesterday," Trudeau told reporters in Montreal on Thursday.

The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, meeting in Winnipeg this week, voted overwhelmingly in favour of reforming Canada's drug laws and to allow officers to write tickets for people found with 30 grams of marijuana or less.

In the interview with Althia Raj of the Huffington Post, Trudeau said the last time he smoked marijuana was about three years ago.

"We had a few good friends over for a dinner party, our kids were at their grandmother's for the night, and one of our friends lit a joint and passed it around. I had a puff," Trudeau said.

"I'm not someone who is particularly interested in altered states, but I certainly won't judge someone else for it," he said in the interview.

But, he added, "I think that the prohibition that is currently on marijuana is unjustified."

Asked about Trudeau's admission, Prime Minister Stephen Harper told reporters Thursday in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, that the Liberal leader's "actions speak for themselves."

But Justice Minister Peter MacKay said that smoking pot as an MP demonstrated "a profound lack of judgment" on Trudeau's part.

"By flouting the laws of Canada while holding elected office, he shows he is a poor example for all Canadians, particularly young ones. Justin Trudeau is simply not the kind of leader our country needs," MacKay said in a statement.

Trudeau has come out in favour of the legalization and regulation of pot in recent months after earlier supporting an attempt by the Conservatives to toughen marijuana laws. The government has since passed a law that sets mandatory minimum sentences for possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking.

The Huffington Post said it asked all the federal party leaders when they last smoked pot. The Prime Minister's Office said Harper has never smoked marijuana, pointing out he has asthma, and NDP Leader Tom Mulcair's office said the Opposition leader has smoked marijuana but refused to say when.

In an email to CBC News on Thursday afternoon, Mulcair's office said he "has not smoked marijuana since becoming an elected official."

Brother faced possession charge

Trudeau said in the interview his younger brother Michel, who died in 1998 at the age of 23, was facing the charge of marijuana possession after a small quantity of pot was found in his car by a police officer following an accident.

"Mich had charges pending against him when he died... even though it was just a tiny amount," Trudeau said.

Since then, Trudeau said, he has been persuaded by scientific studies and by groups such as NORML Women's Alliance of Canada that regulation and taxation of marijuana is the best way to keep it out of the hands of young people.

He said he still believes marijuana is harmful to young people and would support harsher penalties for selling marijuana near a school.

"I do not see this as a slippery slope…. I see this as an issue of legislators slowly catching up to where public opinion and public behaviour actually is," he told the Post.

After the Huffington Post interview was published, Trudeau took to Twitter in mock regret.

"Realizing I may have made a major mistake in my openness and transparency: vicious attacks coming because I don't drink coffee. #oops," he tweeted Thursday.

Corrections and Clarifications

• This story has been edited from an earlier version to clarify that recent government legislation set mandatory minimum sentencing for possession for the purposes of trafficking. Aug. 22, 2013 | 3:34 PM ET

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Obama calls alleged Syrian chemical attack a 'grave concern'

U.S. President Barack Obama says a possible chemical weapons attack in Syria this week is a "big event of grave concern" that has hastened the timeframe for determining a U.S. response.

However, Obama said the notion that the U.S. alone can end Syria's bloody civil war is "overstated" and made clear he would seek international support before taking large-scale action.

"If the U.S. goes in and attacks another country without a UN mandate and without clear evidence that can be presented, then there are questions in terms of whether international law supports it, do we have the coalition to make it work," Obama said during an interview with CNN. "Those are considerations that we have to take into account."

Obama's comments on Syria were his first since Wednesday's alleged chemical weapons attack on the eastern suburbs of Damascus that killed at least 100 people. While he appeared to signal some greater urgency in responding, his comments were largely in line with his previous statements throughout the two-year conflict.

The president said the U.S. is still seeking conclusive evidence that chemical weapons were used this week. Such actions, he said, would be troubling and would be detrimental to "some core national interests that the United States has, both in terms of us making sure that weapons of mass destruction are not proliferating, as well as needing to protect our allies, our bases in the region."

Russia calls for Syria's co-operation

The Russian Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, is calling for an independent probe by UN experts into the incident.

The statement released on Friday said that Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had discussed the situation by telephone on Thursday, and concluded that they had a "mutual interest" in calling for the UN investigation.

The statement said Russia had called for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's embattled government to co-operate with an investigation, but questions remained about the willingness of the opposition, "which must secure safe access of the mission to the location of the incident."

Russia has been one of Assad's key allies in the international arena.

U.S. shouldn't be 'jumping' into immediate action

Wednesday's attack came as a United Nations team was on the ground in Syria investigating earlier chemical weapons attacks. Obama has warned that the use of the deadly gases would cross a "red line," but the U.S. response to the confirmed attacks earlier this year has been minimal.

That's opened Obama up to fierce criticism, both in the U.S. and abroad. Among those leading the criticism is Arizona's Republican Senator John McCain, who says America's credibility has been damaged because Obama has not taken more forceful action to stop the violence.

The president pushed back at those assertions in the interview aired Friday, saying that while the U.S. remains "the one indispensable nation," that does not mean the country should get involved everywhere immediately.

"Sometimes what we've seen is that folks will call for immediate action, jumping into stuff, that does not turn out well," he said. "We have to think through strategically what's going to be in our long-term national interests, even as we work co-operatively internationally to do everything we can to put pressure on those who would kill innocent civilians."

More than 100,000 people have been killed in Syria during more than two years of clashes between forces loyal to Assad and opposition fighters seeking to overthrow his regime. The U.S. has long called for Assad to go and has sent humanitarian aid to the rebels, but those steps have failed to push the Syrian leader from power.

After the earlier chemical weapons attacks, Obama did approve the shipments of small weapons and ammunition to the Syrian rebels, but there is little sign that the equipment has arrived.

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Syrian child refugees top 1 million

The number of registered child refugees fleeing Syria's violence has topped the 1 million mark in another grim milestone of the deepening conflict, two UN agencies said Friday.

Roughly half of all the nearly 2 million registered refugees from Syria are children, and some 740,000 of those are under the age of 11, according to the UN refugee and children's agencies.

"This one millionth child refugee is not just another number," said Anthony Lake, the head of UNICEF, the UN children's agency. "This is a real child ripped from home, maybe even from a family, facing horrors we can only begin to comprehend."

The children's ordeals are not over once they escape Syria, said Antonio Guterres, the head of the Office for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, known as UNHCR.

"Even after they have crossed a border to safety, they are traumatized, depressed and in need of a reason for hope," he said.

His agency said it tries to ensure that babies born in exile are provided with birth certificates, preventing them from becoming stateless, and that all refugee families and children live in some form of safe shelter.

More than 3,500 children separated from families

But the threats to refugee children are rising, the agencies say, including child labour, early marriage and the potential for sexual exploitation and trafficking. More than 3,500 children in Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq have crossed Syria's borders unaccompanied or separated from their families, according to the UN figures.

The agencies say some 7,000 children are among the more than 100,000 killed in the unrest in Syria, which began in March 2011 and later exploded into a civil war.

Most of the refugees fleeing Syria have arrived in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt. However, UN officials say that increasingly Syrians are fleeing to North Africa and Europe.

The two UN agencies estimate that more than 2 million children also have been displaced within Syria.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Friday the real number of Syrian refugees is "well over 2 million" if unregistered refugees are counted.

"The situation in Syria continues to worsen. The humanitarian suffering is alarming. Sectarian tensions have been ignited. Regional instability is spreading," Ban said in a speech in Seoul, South Korea.

"It is heartbreaking to see all these young people, children and women and refugees, who do not have any means, any hope for their country," he said. "They do not know when they will be able to return to their country."

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Prorogation shows Harper afraid of questions, Mulcair says

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's decision to prorogue Parliament until later this fall shows he is afraid to answer the opposition's questions, Opposition Leader Tom Mulcair said Tuesday.

"Stephen Harper, for the fourth time, has prorogued the Parliament of Canada, depriving elected officials of their ability to do what they were put there to do, which is to ask questions of the Canadian government," Mulcair told reporters in Montreal Tuesday.

"Mr. Harper is afraid to answer the questions that we have for him."

Harper confirmed Monday during a news conference on his annual tour of the North that he will ask the Governor General for prorogation and begin a new fall session with a speech from the throne in October.

Harper did not give a date for the throne speech, but if he waits until after Thanksgiving, the earliest likely date would be Oct. 15. The House of Commons was scheduled to resume sitting Sept. 16.

Mulcair said that by the time the House of Commons resumes sitting, Harper will have spent just five working days in the House over 5½ months, in the midst of a scandal over Senate expense claims that involves senators he appointed.

"That's the problem," Mulcair said. "Stephen Harper doesn't respect our democratic institutions, he's hiding from his own accountability and we're calling on him to start showing some leadership, to show up in Parliament and start giving clear answers on the Senate scandal and on a lot of other issues that are plaguing his government."

Asked about the Senate expenses scandal Tuesday, Harper said the Senate sets its own rules for expenditures.

"I think the issue here that's relevant is that there are rules and all senators are expected to follow those rules," he told reporters following a speech in Hay River, N.W.T. "And obviously there's significant evidence that that was not the case and we obviously expect that ... people will be held accountable when rules are not followed."

PM defends prorogation request

Harper defended his decision,

"Look, a new throne speech is, as you know, completely normal," Harper told reporters. "We have been able to have adopted virtually all our legislation to this point in Parliament.

"There's a need to refresh legislation. We will be very busy during the fall, as we have been very busy during the summer. And I look forward to bringing forward new legislation and continuing to focus on jobs and growth," he said.

Mulcair agreed prorogation is a fact of life in Parliament, but delaying the return of the House, he said, is "not a way to behave in a democracy."

"Mr. Harper did two things [Monday] — he prorogued, but he also decided that Parliament wasn't coming back [until October].

"So the people who have been elected and put there to ask questions on your behalf, on behalf of all Canadians, won't be able to do it because Mr. Harper has gone into hiding," Mulcair said.

Harper has used prorogation to change the parliamentary schedule and begin a new session four times going back to when he first took power in 2006.

In 2008, he used the tactic to out-manoeuvre the opposition's attempt to form a coalition government shortly after the 2008 election. He prorogued again in 2010 in the midst of a controversy over Canada's treatment of prisoners in Afghanistan and ahead of Vancouver's hosting of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

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Striking diplomats confident they have 'slam dunk' case

The union representing Canada's foreign service will try to persuade a labour board today that the federal government has been bargaining in bad faith.

If the Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers is successful the two sides could be forced into binding arbitration to settle a contract dispute that has been dragging on for months with no end in sight.

"We think we have a slam dunk case," Tim Edwards, PAFSO president, said Tuesday. "And we think that the arbitrator will find that the government has been dealing with us in bad faith and hopefully order us both into binding arbitration, which is the responsible way forward to solve this dispute."

The bad-faith bargaining complaint will be heard before the Public Service Labour Relations Board in Ottawa at 9:30 a.m. ET. Edwards said he expects it to last the day, with a decision expected in a matter of weeks.

PAFSO filed the complaint after the government sought to attach six preconditions to the union's offer to go to binding arbitration. The union said the conditions Treasury Board president Tony Clement wanted to impose at the arbitration table were unreasonable and "paralyzing."

The union argues it was an attempt to predetermine the outcome of arbitration, and that it was a violation of the government's duty to bargain in good faith under the Public Service Labour Relations Act.

The labour board hearing the complaint is an independent quasi-judicial tribunal that deals with grievances; it can also act as a mediator in resolving disputes related to collective bargaining.

The main sticking point in the contract dispute is salary. Foreign service officers say they don't get equal pay for equal work when compared with government employees who do similar work — as trade or policy analysts for example, but who aren't members of the foreign service.

Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers President Tim Edwards says his members want binding arbitration to settle a contract dispute. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

According to PAFSO it would cost the government $4 million bring their salaries in line with other employees but Clement's office won't budge on the wage hike.

"The foreign service, which is already well paid and a highly sought after posting, is asking for a hefty wage hike that is neither fair nor reasonable for taxpayers," spokeswoman Andrea Mantel-Campbell said in an email Tuesday.

"Foreign service officers have unique jobs that cannot be compared to others. These jobs are substantively different from public service lawyers, economists or commerce officers," she wrote. "The foreign service also has no recruitment or retention issues."

Edwards said the salary increase being asked for is a "tiny fraction" of the economic impact of the contract dispute. Diplomats started temporary rotating strikes at embassies in the spring; certain services have been affected at different times.

The biggest effect has been the complete withdrawal of visa processing services at Canada's 15 busiest centres abroad — Beijing, Cairo, London, Mexico City, Sao Paolo and Shanghai are among the offices affected.

Citizenship and Immigration has taken measures to ensure visas are still being processed, but there has been a slowdown and that's caused big concerns for the tourism and education sectors.

Edwards said that job action will escalate in the fall, with more political, diplomatic and trade officers joining visa and immigration officers.

"The government's approach to this just defies common sense and all reason," Edwards said. "We hope the arbitrator sees it our way."

Wednesday's hearing is to determine whether the government has been bargaining in bad faith and whether to send the matter to an arbitrator. It will not consider arguments on the contract issues.

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Quebec religious symbols ban proposal roundly condemned

Quebec has launched its next debate on minority accommodation — and this one could make the erstwhile soccer-turban ban look like a leisurely stroll on the pitch.

The government is preparing to introduce long-awaited legislation that would restrict religious symbols in numerous places.

A media report Tuesday with leaked details of the Parti Quebecois government's "Charter of Quebec Values" says the proposed policy will prohibit public employees from donning Sikh, Jewish and Muslim headwear in the workplace.

It appears the PQ hopes to cash in at the ballot box by championing a position on secularism that polls have suggested has considerable support in the province.

Soccer turban fight a preview

'This will feed an attitude of exclusion. It will send a message to people who don't feel comfortable here — who feel rejected in Quebec'—Charles Taylor, academic and former accommodation commissioner

The fiery debate that erupted over a recent ban on wearing turbans on Quebec soccer fields offered a sneak peek of the what could be in the political pipeline for the national assembly's fall session.

The turban ban was lifted by the Quebec Soccer Federation due to external pressure — but not before it made headlines around the world. Inside Quebec, Premier Pauline Marois rushed to the defence of the soccer federation and accused its detractors of Quebec-bashing.

Tuesday's report in the Journal de Montréal says the PQ government is set to prevent employees in public institutions like schools and hospitals from wearing religious symbols such as turbans, niqabs, kippas, hijabs and highly visible crucifixes.

The approach is being roundly condemned by civil-rights experts, including prominent lawyer Julius Grey, who expects any such legislation to face court challenges under the Charter of Rights.

"The type of secularism that is being promoted goes beyond what is acceptable," he said in an interview.

"Now, it doesn't mean that the Supreme Court will not uphold it. Legal decisions aren't made in a vacuum and maybe our atmosphere, our social climate, is changing to the point where this will be the future. I hope not."

'Unprecedented' approach

Charles Taylor, a well-known political philosopher who co-presided over Quebec's commission on the accommodation of minorities, expressed outrage at the policy.

He told the French-language CBC that it's one thing to ban a teacher from wearing a burka, because an impediment to clear face-to-face communication could have an impact on other people — namely, the students.

Philosopher Charles Taylor co-presided over a commission that looked at the accommodation of minorities in Quebec in 2007 and 2008. (Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press)

But he condemned a wall-to-wall, draconian approach.

"It's unprecedented," he told Radio-Canada Tuesday.

"This will feed an attitude of exclusion. It will send a message to people who don't feel comfortable here — who feel rejected in Quebec."

He said as his commission toured the province, immigrants repeatedly told him that the reason they came here was for freedom.

"Now we're slamming the door in their face," Taylor said.

The idea of a blanket ban on the wearing religious symbols "is like something we would see in Putin's Russia," he said.

Past opinion polls, however, suggest such policies enjoy broad public support in Quebec. A majority have told pollsters they supported the turban ban and also viewed hijabs and kippas as a cultural threat.

What's less clear is how the policy will hold up in the long term, in two key arenas: the court system, and the ballot box.

The PQ has in the past bluntly stated that it would gladly fight a legal battle up to the Supreme Court over the issue — and would hope to use the issue to stir up support for its main cause of separating from Canada.

Health care, economy still top voters' priority list

But before getting there, there's no guarantee the minority government could get the policy through the legislature or win an election on it.

As popular as the PQ's approach might prove to be, other polls suggest that only a minuscule sliver of Quebec voters actually care about this as an election issue — and that what really drives the Quebec electorate are bread-and-butter issues like health care, education and the economy.

A Leger Marketing poll before last year's election placed the issue of immigrant integration as the top electoral priority for a paltry one per cent of respondents — at No. 15 on voters' list of issues.

Other identity issues hardly fared better that poll. Sovereignty was the 10th most-commonly cited issue, and the protection of French was at No. 12.

Health care, by comparison, was the No. 1 issue, cited by 35 per cent of respondents. Lowering taxes, fighting corruption, school fees, creating jobs, trimming down the civil service and the environment were Nos. 2 to 6 on the minds of the 1,648 respondents of the online poll.

Liberal leader Philippe Couillard reacted coolly Tuesday to the proposal, calling the details that were leaked to Le Journal de Montreal a "trial balloon."

He said it was the PQ's attempt to divert the public's attention away from economic issues, which aren't seen as the sovereigntist party's strong suit.

Federal NDP Leader Tom Mulcair also responded cautiously to the newspaper report Tuesday.

"I won't talk about hypotheses," Mulcair said in French Tuesday in Montreal.

with files from CBC News

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Harper goes target shooting with Canadian Rangers in Arctic

Stephen Harper took up arms — albeit antique arms — on the Arctic tundra late Tuesday in a round of target practice meant as a show of solidarity with Canadian Rangers.

Both the prime minister and newly appointed Defence Minister Rob Nicholson went shooting with the First World War vintage .303 Lee Enfield rifles.

They are the standard issue weapon for the aboriginal reservists — or part-time soldiers — who patrol the vast, desolate tundra.

Harper clearly relished the bonding exercise, firing from several different positions, including laying down.

Shots from the rifle demonstration reverberated for kilometres over the empty limestone and sand landscape.

But it was as much a political statement as a chance to share the rigours of Northern life for a prime minister whose mantra has been to assert and defend Canada's claim to the Arctic.

"Canada has a choice when it comes to defending our sovereignty over the Arctic. We either use it or lose it," Harper said in July 2007 speech, which helped lay the foundation for the Conservative government's Northern Strategy.

The tough rhetoric and thundering military photo-ops have gradually faded with each successive summer tour of the Arctic, which Harper undertaken religiously since becoming prime minister.

Harpers camp with entourage

The latest trip has led him to this wide-open, chilly nook of Nunavut's King William Island, infamous as the potential resting place of the lost Franklin Expedition of the 1800s.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his wife, Laureen, enjoy a bonfire at a Canadian Rangers camp near Gjoa Haven, Nunavut late Tuesday. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

With four cabinet members in tow, Harper and his outdoors-loving wife set up camp on remote stretch of beach about 20 kilometres from Gjoa Haven, birth place of Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq.

A group of enthusiastic Rangers helped him build an inukshuk, the stone landmark synonymous with the Inuit. They also showed him how to erect a traditional tundra shelter made of animal hide.

As the sun set close to midnight, Harper inspected drying Arctic char hung on string between wooden posts, and watched a demonstration of the lighting of qulliq, an Inuit oil lamp that is set ablaze using the spark of two flint rocks.

The army has been trying to replace the Lee Enfields for years because there are so few manufacturers left who make spare parts for the rifles, first introduced to the British Army in 1895.

The fact that they don't freeze up or jam in the Arctic is part of their charm.

At a stop in Hay River, N.W.T., prior to arriving in Nunavut, Harper acknowledged National Defence was still looking for an appropriate replacement.

"I am told there is no difficulty in servicing the weapons at this time, but this is a concern and we believe it is time," he said. "The Department of National Defence is in the process of scoping out the program for replacement and I expect that to happen over the next few years."

The weapons the Rangers are using were purchased in the 1950s.

Public Works put out a tender last fall for 10,000 replacement rifles, but defence industry sources have said that the program has been held up over concern about who holds the design rights on certain weapons.

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‘Regrettable’ layoffs hit Irving shipyard

Irving Shipyard says it will have to lay off more of its workers next month while it carries out a $300-million modernization of the Halifax shipyard.

The company unveiled its plans for the upgrade on Wednesday. The expansion is needed to build Arctic patrol vessels and navy warships for the federal government under the $35-billion National Ship Procurement Program.

The company said it will begin work on the first vessels sometime in the second or third quarter of 2015. Irving officials told a media briefing on Wednesday that until then, it does not have enough work to keep its current workforce of 900.

Scott Jamieson, vice-president of programs at the shipyard, would not say how many will be laid off. He said Irving hopes to lessen the numbers by attracting more businesses to the yard.

The layoffs are expected to be completed by the end of September "followed by normal fluctuations," said Jamieson.

He said once work begins on the Arctic patrol contract, employment will ramp back up reaching a peak of 2,000 to 2,500 between 2020 and 2021.

"It is regrettable. We value our workforce. We will keep in touch with them. Hopefully people will want to come back once we have the shipyard which will be the most modern and offer long-term sustainable work," Jamieson said.

The company got a $260-million loan from the provincial government in March 2012 to assist with the shipyard's upgrades.

They include the building of an assembly hall and painting facilities.

With files from the Canadian Press

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Harper's Northern tour is about politics as much as policy

Stephen Harper began his eighth Northern summer tour Sunday with a stump-style speech to Conservative supporters at a reception in Whitehorse.

Although, the prime minister's staff insisted it was not a fundraiser.

It was roughly the same model in place as last year, when Harper's first event after arriving in Yukon (and taking an ATV ride across the Carcross desert) was a dinner speech to another roomful of Conservatives.

The policy followed later, as it will this year, with an announcement Monday morning expected to focus on skills training to support employment in the North's vast natural resources sector.

Drawing attention to this chunk of the Canadian economy will be the prime minister's key effort over the next few days, just as it was last year, and the year before.

In 2011, the prime minister spent the night at a fly-in gold mine near Baker Lake, Nunavut, and last year he held a news conference on the edge of the open-pit Minto mine in Yukon.

Stephen Harper's trip to the North is just as much about tapping into the near-universal Canadian love of the Arctic as any policy considerations, James Cudmore writes. Pictures of the prime minister being greeted by singing, parka-clad Inuit children still make it into papers even when the words he says do not. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

In each year, Harper made the point that economic opportunities in the north are as vast as its resources. As he said in Yukon last August: "Such is the magnitude of the North's resource wealth that we are only, quite literally, just scratching the surface."

In the Conservative view, the development of natural resources is not just good for companies — it's good for people, too. When a mine goes up, jobs come to town.

And that's why the government says it is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in programs like the one to geo-map Canada's natural resources. Those maps make it easier for exploration to occur and, eventually, exploitation.

Then there's the riff on former Conservative prime minister John Diefenbaker's 1960s Roads to Resources Program that brought vehicle traffic all the way to Inuvik in the Northwest Territories.

In this year's budget the government pledged $200 million to complete that dream and link Inuvik — and the rest of Canada — by an all-season road to Tuktoyaktuk on the shores of the Beaufort Sea.

Yes, it will reduce costs and make life easier for those who live and work in Tuktoyaktuk, but the road will also likely spur on the search for oil and gas in the Mackenzie Delta region, both on land and under the sea.

Skills gap

In much of the north, it's difficult to do the hard, dirty work of searching for resources and digging them up without the involvement of either aboriginal or Inuit communities. But there is a skills gap that businesses have had a hard time addressing on their own.

This, it seems, is where the federal government sees its own role growing.

The Conservative budget this year earmarked $241 million over five years "to connect First Nations youth between the ages of 18 and 24 with skills training and jobs." Expect to hear more — much more — on this over the next few days.

The government points out it promised $100 million this year and next to build 250 new houses in Nunavut. But that's probably the limit of what you might hear this week on the softer, social development side.

That's likely because of the prime minister's own trickle-down view of social development in the North.

Last year, he was asked whether the government's focus on economic development and business came at the expense of a focus on social development and people. Harper said he didn't think so.

"Those things become so much simpler if we can get economic development driving some wealth accumulation here," he said.

It's a case of a rising tide floating all boats, under that view.

Image is important

But it would be unwise to become too bogged down by policy. Politics always plays its part.

No matter what may be in his announcements over the next week, the prime minister is captive to the media's questions, which, given the apparent countrywide interest in Pamela Wallin's expenses, will see Harper forced off his Northern message — likely more than once.

Tuesday, while the travelling media have their heads down in Hay River, N.W.T., processing another announcement, likely about education, the prime minister will meet again with Conservatives at a lunch hour event at the Hay River Golf Club.

But the trip north is not just about politicking, or shoring up support in the three Northern ridings, ridings that have a history of changing hands.

It's about tapping into the near universal Canadian love of the North, the Arctic and its very wild spaces. Pictures, video and audio of the prime minister surveying an Arctic landscape, or being greeted by singing, parka-clad Inuit children still make it into papers and onto TV and radio even when the words he says do not.

It's a point not lost on the prime minister's soon-to-be-former director of communications, Andrew MacDougall.

"The North is a fundamental part of our Canadian heritage, our national identity and is vital to our country's future prosperity," he said in a statement Friday.

"Our government recognizes the tremendous opportunities – as well as the many challenges – that exist in the North today. This is why we have made the North a priority."

But there is a somewhat satirical point being made about the extent of that priority and the fact, from a communications perspective anyway, it seems to match the easy summer season. Sunday it was being made on Twitter by one of Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau's top advisers, Gerry Butts.

"You know what would be truly impressive?" has asked rhetorically. "An annual Arctic tour in January."

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3 reasons not to freak out over prorogation

In the wake of today's not really all that surprising announcement that the 41st Parliament will be enjoying a longer than scheduled adjournment before reconvening in October for a brand new session-starting Throne speech, let's all take a deep breath before hauling the anti-prorogation picket signs out of storage and hitting the barricades, shall we? 

1. It's not the least bit weird or nefarious for a PM to hit the reboot button midway through his or her mandate. 

Never mind the inevitable talking points calling it an unprecedented attack on democracy or the like: It really is pretty much standard Canadian political operating procedure for PMs to blow the whistle at the halfway-ish point, particularly in a majority context. 

After all, rare and wondrous indeed would be the Speech from the Throne that would cover every possible governing priority that could potentially surface over the course of a parliament, so it just makes sense that at a certain point -- say, 2.5-ish years into a 4-ish year anticipated mandate -- a PM might want to dust off the Throne and invite the GG back to deliver an update. 

(Those who dutifully clicked on the preceding link will note that, with few exceptions,past parliaments have typically included at least two sessions -- and, during the olden pre-1990s days before the House switched to a fixed calendar, sometimes even more, as it was the only way to shut the Commons down for longer than a weekend without all-party agreement at the time of desired adjournment.)

2. Most bills that 'die on the Order Paper' can be brought back to life at the last stage reached in the Commons through a simple motion -- or, in the case of private members' business, automatically via the standing orders.  

Despite the traditional references to legislation 'dying on the Order Paper', it's really more of a medically -- or, in this case, procedurally -- induced coma, as as both government bills and private members' business can be reinstated in the Commons -- the former via motion, which could be adopted unanimously or, more likely, be debated and, eventually, passed, and the latter through a specific standing order that automatically brings private members' at the last stage reached in the Commons. 

Now, admittedly, that particular resurrection ritual doesn't work in the Red Chamber, where there are no explicit provisions to reinstate legislation after prorogation.  

 Bills consigned to Upper House limbo, then, would have to be fast-tracked through the House, and would start back at first reading in the Senate, although it appears only one government bill would be caught in that particular net: C-54, which would crack down on offenders deemed not criminally responsible.

Then again, when the Senate broke for the summer, it hadn't even begun second reading debate, so it's not like it would result in much wasted time or effort.

3. With no confidence votes looming or contempt findings on the table, postponing the return of Parliament by a few weeks does just that, and nothing more. 

Unlike certain prorogations during minority parliaments past, there is no indication that the PM is attempting to preempt pressing Commons business -- like, say, a confidence vote, or a finding of contempt related to his government's refusal to produce documents after being ordered to do so by the House.

Yes, it will give both the PM and his ministers with a few more weeks' respite from daily interrogations over the Senate expense scandal, the Duffy/Wright affair or anything else that trips the opposition parties' collective or respective outrage wire, but that's it, really -- it's not like the power to prorogue comes with an accompanying precinct-wide mindwipe button, which means that the very same questions -- as well as any number of new ones -- will be waiting when the House returns in October. 

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Stephen Harper to seek prorogation of Parliament

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has confirmed he will ask the Governor General to prorogue Parliament until October, when his Conservative government will introduce the next speech from the throne.

"There will be a new throne speech in the fall, obviously the House will be prorogued in anticipation of that. We will come back — in October is our tentative timing," Harper told reporters in Whitehorse Monday. Harper is in the Yukon on the second day of his annual summer tour of the North.

The Prime Minister's Office later clarified that Harper will ask for Parliament to be prorogued before the scheduled return of the House on Sept. 16, meaning Parliament will not sit again until after the throne speech in October.

The prime minister did not give a date for the throne speech. His spokesman, Andrew MacDougall, said he wouldn't speculate but did note the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) summit is in the first week of October and is followed by Thanksgiving. That would suggest Parliament could return as early as Oct. 15. The Conservatives hold their postponed party convention in Calgary at the end of that month.

'I'm actually disappointed you feel the need to ask that question'—Prime Minister Stephen Harper, on whether he'll seek re-election in 2015

The move was not unexpected. The government managed to pass much of its outstanding legislation before rising for the summer break, and Harper undertook a major shuffle of his cabinet in July as he passed the halfway mark of his mandate.

Harper used prorogation in 2007, but it was subsequent moves to prorogue in 2008 and 2010 that drew the most attention. In 2008, he used the tactic to successfully out-maneouvre the opposition's attempt to unseat him and form a coalition government. He prorogued again in 2010 in the midst of a controversy over Canada's treatment of prisoners in Afghanistan and ahead of Vancouver's hosting of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Before the summer break this year, Harper had been under fire daily in the House of Commons over the continuing scandal involving the expenses of senators, including three Conservatives he had picked.

Opposition Leader Tom Mulcair accused Harper of shutting down Parliament to evade accountability and avoid questions on the Senate.

"People aren't going to be fooled. This is clearly a desperate government worn out by ethical scandals and mismanagement. Stephen Harper refuses to answer legitimate questions from the public," the NDP leader said in a statement released Tuesday.

Liberals denounce move

The Liberals also accused Harper of delaying tactics.

"While starting a new session is an appropriate way to provide direction, Parliament has been on a summer recess since June and the prime minister has had plenty of time to write a throne speech," deputy Liberal leader Ralph Goodale said in a statement. "This delay clearly shows that Stephen Harper and his government are without a plan."

Harper gave few specifics about his agenda for the fall.

"We will obviously have still some things, still some unfulfilled commitments, that we will continue to work on. The number one priority for this government, I do not have to tell you, will continue to be jobs and the economy," Harper told reporters.

"While we are overall pleased with the progress the Canadian economy has made since the recession, we remain in a very difficult, fragile competitive world marketplace."

When asked about his own political future and whether he would lead his party into the next election, the prime minister said "yes," and quipped: "I'm actually disappointed you feel the need to ask that question."

Legislation affected

Senate reform legislation is just one of several bills that will die on the order paper with prorogation. The government is awaiting a Supreme Court opinion on Senate reform that could come as early as this fall.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his wife, Laureen, tour Miles Canyon near Whitehorse Monday, on the second day of Harper's annual tour of Northern Canada. (Chris Wattie/Reuters)

The Senate media relations office said prorogation would not affect the auditor general's review of Senate expenses, which was confirmed to be underway last week. However, the recommendations of a Senate report issued last week into Senator Pamela Wallin's expense claims would be on hold until they are adopted by the full Senate. That can't happen while Parliament is prorogued.

Other affected legislation includes changes to the Canada Elections Act to establish new rules for political loans, which has been stalled for some time at a Commons committee, and a bill to change parole rules for offenders found not criminally responsible for their actions.

However, these bills can be reintroduced at their most recent stage in the House of Commons.

A private member's bill that would require labour unions to publish detailed financial information, known as Bill C-377, would be restored to third reading, the last stage completed by the House of Commons.

The bill had been the subject of heated debate in the Senate, where it was amended and sent back to the House of Commons. But prorogation would wipe the slate clean as far as the Senate deliberations are concerned, according to the Library of Parliament.

"Thus, the bill would be sent back to the Senate in the same state it had been when it was passed at third reading by the House in December 2012, prior to the Senate amendment," the library said in an email to The Canadian Press.

"The Senate would then begin the process of considering the bill anew; the Senate may vote to pass the bill unamended, amend the bill in precisely the same way it had been amended before, or introduce entirely new amendments."

Corrections and Clarifications

• An earlier version of this story said today's announcement marks the third time that Harper has sought prorogation since he took office in 2006. In fact, it's the fourth time he has sought to prorogue Parliament. August 19, 2013 | 8:30 p.m. ET

with files from The Canadian Press

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Ottawa 'extremely concerned' about Canadians held in Egypt

Ottawa has not been told why two Canadians have been detained in Egypt, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper says the government is "extremely concerned" about their safety.

Word got back to Canada on Friday that John Greyson, a Toronto-based filmmaker and York University professor, and Tarek Loubani, an emergency room doctor from London, Ont., had been detained in Cairo.

Greyson and Loubani had planned to head to Gaza, but the border was closed when they landed in Cairo the day before their arrest. That led to an unplanned stay in the city where they were detained.

Loubani was going to Gaza to train emergency room doctors. Greyson was accompanying him, hoping to make a documentary.

Their detention comes amid bloody clashes between Egyptian security forces and supporters of ousted prime minister Mohammed Morsi that have claimed almost 1,000 lives in recent days.

Canadian consular officials visited Greyson and Loubani on Sunday, and passed a message on to their loved ones the two men are OK.

What is not clear is why the Canadians have been detained.

"We are obviously extremely concerned about the arrest and treatment of the two Canadian citizens who have been detained in Egypt," Harper said Monday during a news conference in Whitehorse, Yukon.

"We don't frankly know what evidence supports any such arrest," the prime minister said, "and we have expressed our concerns directly to the Egyptian government."

Those concerns are also weighing on the families of the two men, who want to see Greyson and Loubani moved out of the violence-torn counrty.

A Toronto man was shot dead during a protest in Alexandria, a city located about two hours from Cairo, on the same day Greyson and Loubani were arrested.

Cecilia Greyson, the sister of the detained filmmaker, said the situation has left their family anxiously waiting for information.

"We're all very, very worried and we all want to see this resolved as quickly as possible," she told CBC Radio's Mainstreet in a telephone interview from Halifax.

On Monday, Lynne Yelich, the junior foreign affairs minister, released a statement saying the government was trying to obtain more information about why the men had been detained.

But Yelich said the government strongly believes "this is a case of two people being in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Yelich vowed that Canada will continue to press for a timely resolution on the case.

Deepak Obhrai, parliamentary secretary to Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, said in an interview on CBC News Network that steps are being taken to get more information.

"We are calling the Egyptian ambassador for the second time and we will be writing a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Egypt," Obhrai said.

"But what we really want — if they are being held for real reasons — we want to see the charges, what the charges are … If not, then they should be released."

Clashes began last Wednesday between security forces and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood. Supporters are seeking the reinstatement of Morsi, toppled by the army on July 3 after mass demonstrations against him.

Officials in Ottawa are warning Canadians to avoid any non-essential travel to Egypt.

With files from the CBC's Michelle Cheung and The Canadian Press

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Canadians deserve cheaper mobile rates, James Moore says

Canadian consumers deserve to pay less for their cellphone plans and only increased competition will give them lower bills, Industry Minister James Moore says.

Beginning a roadshow that will see him speak across the country, Moore on Monday defended the federal government's policy on telecom, saying it is designed to increase competition in the sector.

"I think that the public instinctively knows that when they have more choices that prices go down and more competition they're well served by that," he told CBC News in Vancouver on Monday. He also spoke to CBC Radio One in Saskatoon.

He said he's "pushing back a bit" against the big three wireless carriers – Telus, Rogers and Bell – which have launched their own campaign to convince consumers Ottawa has it wrong.

At issue are the conditions the federal government has set to auction off four blocks of public spectrum the telecoms can use to carry data and voice and the rules over sale of small-scale competitors Wind and Mobilicity.

The big three carriers say those rules favour Verizon, an American competitor that has not yet decided whether it will enter the Canadian market.

Verizon, if it decides to enter Canada, will be permitted to bid on two of the four blocks of spectrum on offer, while the big three will scrabble for the other two. The U.S. firm also could decide to buy Wind or Mobilicity, with the big three having been blocked from doing so.

Bell, Rogers and Telus are trying to generate public support against Verizon, arguing its entry into the market will cost Canadians jobs. They've accused Ottawa of not providing a "level playing field" and say Verizon is a giant that will roll right over the Canadian industry.

Moore said the mobile carriers are just interested in protecting themselves.

"The noise that we're hearing is about you know companies trying to protect their company's interest," he said. "Our job as a government is larger than that, our job is to serve the public interest and make sure that the public is served in this so that's one of the reasons why I'm pushing back a little bit."

He said current policies will protect jobs, while setting conditions that allow more competition into the marketplace. That should lower Canadians cellphone bills, he said.

Moore is also promoting a new Conservative Party website called www.consumersfirst.ca. The website puts forward the government's policy positions on wireless competition and includes a list of "myths vs. facts" about the wireless market.

The telecom firms have responded by joining debates on the issue across the country.

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Do all senators meet residency rules? NDP wants to know

A New Democratic Party MP is calling for the government to answer whether all current senators meet residency qualifications to sit in the Senate.

At a news conference Friday, Charlie Angus also faced questions about why MPs don't have to submit to an audit of their travel and living expenses by the auditor general in the same way that senators now do.

Angus has written a letter to Minister of State for Democratic Reform Pierre Poilievre asking him what action he intends to take to ensure senators adhere to residency rules.

Angus pointed out a Deloitte audit released on Tuesday found that Senator Pamela Wallin spends more time in Toronto than in Saskatchewan, the province she was appointed to represent.

Senator Pamela Wallin, left, speaks with Prime Minister Stephen Harper during a campaign rally in Saskstoon during the 2011 federal election. Wallin was appointed as a senator from Saskatchewan, but a Deloitte audit found she spends more time in Toronto and Ottawa. (Liam Richards/Canadian Press)

Angus also wants to know how rigorously the Privy Council Office vetted the Senate appointments of Wallin as well as senators Mike Duffy and Patrick Brazeau, who have both been found to have claimed inappropriate expenses. He wants to know if the PCO found problems with residency requirements of the three senators, or the fact that Brazeau had "personal issues."

"He [Poilievre] also needs to come clean with these concerns if they were raised by the Privy Council," Angus said.

When he became a senator, Duffy had lived in Ottawa for four decades. He was appointed a P.E.I. senator, but kept his Ottawa home and claimed expenses for it as an out-of-town senator, declaring his primary residence was his P.E.I. winterized cottage. Brazeau was facing a sexual harassment complaint at the time of his Senate appointment, although the complaint was later dismissed.

"It's not enough to say your heart's there, that your uncle lives there or you have a cottage there," said Angus, adding that the Constitution requires a senator to reside in the province he or she was appointed to represent.

The only proof the Senate used for residency was for senators to show ownership of property worth a least $4,000 and to annually make a declaration —a "pinky-swear" according to Angus — attesting to which province or region is their primary residence.

Last year, a Senate committee tightened the residency definition, saying a senator should have a driver's licence and health card from his or her home province, and should vote and pay taxes there.

Angus pointed out that the only requirement Wallin met is having a Saskatchewan driver's licence. A Deloitte audit revealed Duffy applied for a P.E.I. driver's licence on the day he was appointed to the Senate, but continued to maintain an Ontario health card.

Asked by a reporter if residency matters in today's mobile world, Angus replied that if senators choose to ignore the Constitution they can't be relied upon to follow other rules.

"I'm calling on the minister of democratic reform to end his silence on this scandal, to clean up the appointments process and commit to Canadians that he will put an end to using the Senate to feather the nests of the Conservative Party," Angus said.

Why MPs don't proactively disclose expenses

At the news conference, reporters repeatedly pressed Angus about why MPs don't have to face the scrutiny of Auditor General Michael Ferguson, as all senators are doing now in the wake of the Senate expense scandal, or why MPs such as himself don't plan to post detailed expenses online.

The auditor general looked at a sample of MPs expenses last year and found no significant problems.

Currently, the expenses of MPs are overseen by an all-party committee of selected MPs. The board of internal economy meets in secret and rarely answers questions about its work.

MPs do post quarterly expenses online, but only in broad categories, with no details about individual trips.

Asked why he wouldn't post his own expenses in detail, Angus said, "I guess it's a fundamental issue of trust because then it's on the honour system again, and if individual MPs post they can also decide not to post. If there's something problematic, they can just leave it out."

In Calgary Friday, Jason Kenney, the employment and social development minister, said in a scrum with reporters, "In June, we also adopted a policy in the House of Commons to proactively disclose details of the spending of members of Parliament."

But any changes to the way MPs account for spending won't happen until next spring. In June, an NDP motion was passed to allow the internal economy board to "conduct open and public hearings" about replacing the board with an independent oversight body," and to study Trudeau's motions. The auditor general will be invited to participate in the discussions.

The motion calls for the study to be finished by the end of March 2014.

Outside of cabinet ministers who must post details of their trips and hospitality expenses, only Green Party Leader Elizabeth May and Conservative Senator Doug Black proactively disclose, on their own volition, all their expenses. May even scans receipts.

Trudeau has pledged that all Liberal MPs and Liberal senators will post detailed expenses by September.

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Conservative Party should pay for Wallin audit, Mulcair says

The Conservative Party of Canada should cover the costs of the audit of Senator Pamela Wallin's expenses by independent consulting firm Deloitte, Opposition Leader Tom Mulcair said in an interview with host Chris Hall on CBC Radio's The House.

"I think that Stephen Harper and his party at least should be obliged to reimburse the amount of money that taxpayers are going to be on the hook for, because since the beginning everyone's known that there's a problem, and they stalled and denied," said Mulcair.

The Senate will pay the independent auditing firm $126,988 for their work, digging into the travel and expense claims for Wallin, who resigned from the Conservative caucus under pressure last May. Wallin was ordered to repay $121,348 in total, of which she has already paid $38,369.29.

Mulcair pointed to Harper's quick defence of Wallin in the House of Commons last winter. At the time, the prime minister said he had looked at her expenses and found no fault.

"Her travel costs are comparable to any parliamentarian travelling from that particular area of the country over that period of time," Harper said in Question Period in February.

The Prime Minister's Office has since said that Wallin's expenses were not out of the ordinary, and Harper was not basing his comments on specifics.

Listen to the full interview with NDP Leader Tom Mulcair on The House.

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PM Harper rips opposition on 1st stop of North tour

Prime Minister Stephen Harper started his tour of Canada's North on Sunday with a full-throated attack on both Opposition parties, test-driving themes expected to carry the embattled Conservatives into the next election.

He trumpeted the Conservatives as champions of the Arctic at the same time as National Defence acknowledged that it has scrambled to buy snowmobiles for reserve army units operating in the unforgiving region.

In a highly partisan speech to supporters, delivered against the backdrop of a summer of eye-popping revelations of Senate misspending, Harper took aim at both of his opponents.

"What I am telling you is that with the NDP and Liberals, what you see is what you get; dangerous ideas and vacuous thinking that would reverse all of the progress we have made," he said, ticking off bread and butter Conservative themes such as the economy, and law and order.

It was a direct appeal to the party's base, which has been badly shaken by the spending scandal, which has cost the Conservatives three senators, launched multiple police investigations and shows no sign of abating anytime soon.

Warned of economic calamity

He warned of economic calamity should the Conservatives be defeated in 2015, claiming the Opposition had "tax and spend proposals so extreme they would make the worst European budget look solid in comparison."

The military, usually a main plank in galvanizing Conservatives, merited only passing reference Sunday, as the defence department conceded the recent purchase of snowmobiles for troops will be the last for nearly a decade.

In addition, the Arctic response companies will be asked to make do with older, heavy 1980s all-terrain vehicles, which until a few years ago were headed to the scrap heap.

The transport concerns are on top of reports last year that showed, despite the Arctic being a long-standing priority for the Conservative government, the army did not — until recently — have enough cold weather gear, most notably parkas.

A series of documents, obtained by The Canadian Press under access to information legislation, show the army has been preoccupied with equipping soldiers in the Arctic and fulfilling the Harper government's mandate to show the flag.

Memo mentioned 'insufficient' numbers of snowmobiles

There is a program to purchase over snow-transport — known as the Domestic and Arctic Mobility Enhancement project. But it is not slated to look at new acquisitions until the 2021/22 timeframe, a defence spokeswoman confirmed.

The spending freeze is in effect despite the government's long-trumpeted military build-up and plans to exercise troops more often in the region, notably at the newly inaugurated Arctic warfare training centre in Resolute Bay, Nunavut.

Internal army documents warned in late 2011 that there were "insufficient numbers of (snowmobiles) in the Army to meet the needs of (Arctic Response Company Groups) and the training requirements." Officials discussed the possibility of renting equipment.

The response units, a key pillar of the army's plan to enforce Canadian sovereignty in the North, could not be formed until they had over snow transport and even then, "there were insufficient numbers in the field force to enable cold weather training," said the Nov. 3, 2011 memo to former army commander, the now-retired lieutenant-general Peter Devlin.

Since then, the defence department has replaced 310 snow machines, out of a total fleet of 963, including 69 allocated to the Rangers. It has also purchased 310 small all-terrain vehicles.

$620K 'stealth' snowmobile

Both are in the process of arriving this year.

A spokeswoman for the army, Colleen McGrann, says those recent deliveries mean "there are no plans at this time to purchase (additional) Arctic vehicles" until the mobility project kicks in eight years from now.

It also comes at the same time as word that the research branch of National Defence has spent $620,000 on a prototype "stealth" snowmobile.

Defence analyst and Arctic expert Michael Byers said there's no reason defence should hold off spending on ordinary snow machines.

"This is not big ticket military procurement. You can buy a high-performance snowmobile for $10,000, which is presumably less than a seat cushion on an F-35," said Byers, a political science professor at the University of British Columbia. "The numbers are simply not on the same scale as most defence procurement. I am concerned about the delays because this should be ridiculously easy."

$2.5B in defence spending on chopping block

In addition, the army's inventory of 47 heavy, tracked all-terrain BV-206 vehicles will remain in service, despite an order from the vice chief of defence staff in 2009 that the old, box-like transports were not to "used, nor upgraded" with the exception of those overhauled for use guarding the Vancouver Olympics site.

With looming budget cuts, expected to chop as much as $2.5 billion out of defence spending, the prohibition surrounding the BV-206s was reversed and commanders ordered the fleet be "invigorated as much as possible."

The army spent $1.8 million last year and plans another $3.8 million this year to maintain and operate the Swedish-built transports, originally purchased by Canada in the 1980s.

Harper's trip will include a visit with Canadian Rangers, aboriginal reservists who patrol the region on behalf of the military. Some of them greeted him when he arrived at the airport.

He will hop-scotch across the North, ending in northern Quebec.

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