Peter MacKay, left.Another story has surfaced about a government official spending taxpayer dollars for questionable use of the country's VIP jets - this time it involves the minister of defence.

Between 2007 and 2011, Peter MacKay flew more than any other cabinet minister.

Records obtained by The Globe and Mail show that over four years there were 35 flights arranged for MacKay costing taxpayers almost $3 million. None of these flights, however, were to Afghanistan with 25 being domestic trips inside Canada.

During question period, Thursday, prime minister Harper came to the defence of of his defence minister.

Harper said MacKay used the jet 70 per cent less than his Liberal predecessors and "half the time he does that for repatriation ceremonies" in Trenton, Ont. for fallen soldiers.

The intent, the prime minister said, was to meet the families of fallen soldiers.

"He goes there to show that we understand their sacrifice, we share their pain and we care about them and that's why the Minister of Defence

Critics of the Harper government's omnibus crime bill have been out in full force this week complaining about the potential costs of the new legislation.

No one, not even the government, appears to have a firm grip on how much the crime measures will cost.

Prison expansion, new corrections officers and additional court resources will certainly come with a hefty price tag - some peg the total cost at $3 billion over five years.

But that's only half the story.

What most pundits and opposition MPs aren't talking about is the potential long-term savings resulting from this bill.

In a column for the Winnipeg Sun, Tim Brodbeck stated the crime bill could actually save taxpayers a lot of money.

"The soft-on-crime crowd, including the opposition, say they don't like the bill because it will result in more criminals in jail and a greater burden for taxpayers to build more prison capacity," he wrote.

"But the funny thing is, they never demand to know how much taxpayers will save when more

Rob FordLess than a year after sweeping in to office, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford finds himself in deep trouble.

Polls suggest his popularity is plummeting, key allies are deserting him and his plan to slash city spending by closing libraries and slashing public transit is meeting fierce opposition.

That might explain his administration's meagre budget cuts announced Tuesday, which equate to only one-third of one per cent of Toronto's total annual budget of $9 billion.

Ford was elected with a clear mandate to cut the "gravy" at city hall.

The cuts announced Tuesday, however, are a mere drop in the bucket relative to his goal to cut $740 million from the city's expenses.

The mayor put a positive spin on the cuts — claiming to have spared beloved services and found $28-million in "service adjustments," as well as another $65-million in possible cuts that were referred to during this fall's budget discussions.

"This is a huge victory," the mayor told reporters after the vote. "Childcare saved.

"What was up with McGuinty's hand movements?" became a common question in the twittersphere during last night's leaders' debate in Ontario.

Throughout the debate, the usually taut Dalton McGuinty answered questions while making demonstrative gestures with his hands.

The Globe and Mail's Stephen Wicary tweeted: "McGuinty's hand gestures are SNL worthy. Reminds me of Dana Carvey's Bush the Elder."

Watch the video:

"If Dalton McGuinty proved anything tonight it's that he would make a great third-base coach," wrote University of Victoria political scientist Emmett Macfarlane.

The right-leaning National Citizens Coalition blogged, "Premier Dalton McGuinty's constant hand movements reminded me again why he is all for windmills and green energy. He talks like a windmill; with both hands working intermittently just to keep him upright."

On Wednesday, Liberal sources told The Star McGuinty's hand gestures were part of his plan to demonstrate, especially to women voters, that he still has a

The Ontario election leaders' debate Tuesday ended like most other debates do with no knock-out punches and with each party claiming victory.

The Tories were the first to release a post-debate response titled "Tim Hudak Wins Ontario's Leaders' Debate."

"During the debate, Hudak exposed Dalton McGuinty's failed record on green energy as well as his record of wasting a billion dollars during the Liberal eHealth scandal," it stated.

"Tim Hudak also pinned McGuinty down on his record of increasing taxes on Ontario families asking that, given Dalton McGuinty's record of breaking promises and increasing taxes through the HST, health tax and eco-tax, why would anybody believe McGuinty now."

On their website, the Liberals posted a release about what people are saying concerning the debate. The post leads with this quote from Tarke Fatah of Newstalk 1010: "You heard it hear first: a Liberal majority on October 6, 2011. Hudak, you blew a 10 per cent lead and your party will need a new leader."

Premier Greg Selinger One week before the Manitoba election, a new poll indicates health care is the number one issue in the province followed by crime.

The poll gives the opposition Conservatives a sliver of hope in an election they're not expected to win - tough on crime policies, after all, are are a Conservative staple.

Provincially, Manitoba politics is mostly a two-party show, with the governing NDP Leader Greg Selinger facing a challenge from Progressive Conservative Leader Hugh McFadyen, a lawyer and former chief of staff for the province's last PC premier.

Throughout the past week, the Tory leader has been speaking about shedding Manitoba's "crime capital" handle.

Manitoba has the highest homicide rate in Canada and there's been an increase in arson and organized crime.  Winnipeg has either led or been very near the top of the Violent Crime Index since it was introduced four years ago.

"After 12 years of Greg Selinger and the NDP, violent crime is out of control. The alarming headlines that have

Canada's justice minister, Rob Nicholson, said "this is just the beginning" when he unveiled the Harper government's infamous 100-page omnibus crime bill last week, and he likely meant it.

As the government used its 166-seat majority to impose closure on debate Tuesday to get the monster bill into the Commons justice committee for witness hearings, it was hard to imagine what could be left.

The bill, which throws together nearly a dozen crime bills the Conservatives had on the Commons plate when Stephen Harper cut Parliament short for the May election, seems to address every remaining pet peeve Harper and Nicholson had left over, following an endless string of earlier crime bills since they first won power nearly six years ago.

There are new mandatory minimum sentences, even for growing six marijuana plants for the purpose of trafficking, which would include handing just one joint over to a pal, higher maximum penalties for crimes, tougher sentencing for young offenders, more publicity

The prime minister's parliamentary secretary has waded in to the Ontario election campaign.

Over the weekend, Conservative MP Dean Mastro commissioned a poll because he felt a local newspaper underplayed the popularity of the local Progressive Conservative candidate.

The Globe and Mail reported Peterborough This Week newspaper published a poll showing Liberal Jeff Leal had a 45.5-per-cent share of the vote compared to 28 per cent for his PC candidate Alan Wilson.

Mastro disagreed with the poll so decided to conduct his own.

"I was deeply concerned that publishing numbers in the fashion as presented on the cover of a weekly large circulation paper could significantly suppress voter participation," he told the Globe and Mail.

"The methodology was not released and the responses could have just as easily been provided by six-year-olds as registered voters."

Conveniently, Mastro's poll, which he publicized on Twitter, has both the Liberal and PC candidates in a dead heat at 34 per cent