Tory MPs applaud Harris

As Conservative MPs got ready to vote Wednesday on the motion approving new packge of tax cuts, they may have felt the presence of another prominent Tory tax slasher in the Commons' chamber -- former Ontario premier Mike Harris.

He was actually there, sitting in the visitor's gallery alongside former Alberta premier Ralph Klein.

Harris was introduced by Commons' speaker Peter Milliken, prompting a standing ovation from the Conservative caucus. Leading the Tory cheers was Environment Minister John Baird, who was in Harris' cabinet.

Morning reading

Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl showed himself to be a man well acquainted with morality coming out of a weekly caucus meeting Wednesday.

Asked about a report in the Globe and Mail about former prime minister Brian Mulroney being tardy with the taxman on $300,000 in payments from businessman Karlheinz Schreiber, Strahl replied that he had not read the report and, therefore, had no comment.

"But haven't you read the Globe this morning?" one reporter asked.

The lontime B.C. MP said that, each morning, he makes a point of reading the Globe and the Bible. That way, he said, he gets a dose of news about both good and evil.

Rainbow of Northern Lights

Stephen Harper’s throne speech veered to the lyrical as Conservative authors tried to wax poetically about the North Star as a metaphor for Canada.

But was it perhaps something more political? A coded appeal for the homosexual vote? In Marvel Comics lore, Northstar is the name of the first gay superhero and bonus, a Canadian/Quebecer crime fighter too. Northstar, known in his civilian life as Jean-Paul Beaubier, is a former Quebec-separatist terrorist in the Marvel comics, who renounces his evil ways to fight for the betterment of mankind. (Image from Marvel Comics' Alpha Flight #106, by Mark Pacella)

No word on whether Northstar and Harry Potter’s Dumbledore ever dated in the fictional universe.

Meanwhile, Liberal MP Anita Neville (Winnipeg South Centre) weighed in with her own interpretation of the North Star analogy this week as she talked about the rights of indigenous people.

"Like an astrologer, the Prime Minister claims to be guided by the North Star. Will he admit that on this issue he is indeed like the North Star: cold, unmovable, distant and not too bright?" she said in the Commons.