A columnist in Russia is taking exception to Stephen Harper's stance on the Arctic, which asserts Canadian sovereignty over the northern tundra.

An editorial on the website pravada.ru contends Harper's "Napoleonic plans" are focused on forcing Russia out of the Arctic region.

"As soon as he arrived in the Arctic, Harper began to observe the (military) exercises attended by land, naval and air forces," wrote Vadim Trukhachev in regards to Harper's visit to the north last week.

"It is pretty clear who Canada intends to defend itself from. The U.S., Denmark and Norway have access to the Arctic, and they are NATO allies. Only Russia remains."

Since becoming prime minister Stephen Harper has made annual trips to the Arctic claiming it as a "vital party of our national identity, sovereignty and economic security."

During his most recent visit, Harper observed the country's largest modern-day Arctic military exercise in an apparent show of force to the international community.

Other

Note: An earlier version of this post noted Tories were the most popular choice of incarcerated individuals.

Elections Canada, however, does not publish figures to show how prisoners voted exclusively, according to the referenced article.  Instead, their votes are lumped in with other special ballots cast by Canadians living abroad and Canadian Forces members stationed away from their home ridings.

Those who have been convicted of a criminal activity and military personnel living outside their ridings voted in large numbers for the "tough-on-crime" Harper Conservatives in the last election.

A story in the Ottawa Citizen reported more than 17,000 incarcerated citizens cast ballots for the May 2 election, a 27 per cent increase from the 2008 election.

Olivia Chow and David MillerWith the unofficial 'week of mourning' for Jack Layton now behind us, political pundits are musing about who will succeed him as federal NDP leader.

While no one has yet publicly announced their intentions, several names have surfaced in the early scramble for Layton's job.

To date, the front-runners appear to be party president Brian Topp, Quebec MP Thomas Mulcair and Layton's widow Olivia Chow.

Other individuals reported to be considering their options include British Columbia MPs Libby Davies and Peter Julian, Ontario MPs Paul Dewar and Peggy Nash, Winnipeg MP Pat Martin, and even former Toronto mayor David Miller.

Also making the leadership news is Karl Belanger, Layton's director of communications.

In Layton's letter, penned in his final days, he urged the party to choose a permanent leader as early as possible in 2012.

As one veteran NDP MP told The Globe and Mail that means the contest to succeed Layton unofficially starts this week.

Here's a look at some of the possible

While proponents of the Keystone XL laud a U.S. State Department report which essentially deems the project environmentally safe, activists vow to continue their fight against its construction.

The State Department report released Friday notes the proposed oil pipeline, extending from Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast, would have "no significant impact" to the vast majority of resources along the pipeline corridor, and suggested moving forward on the project with limited modifications.

While refining oil from Canada's oil sands will generate more greenhouse gas emissions per barrel of final product than the production of conventional oil, the authors argue if the oil wasn't delivered by the Keystone XL, it would instead be transported to refineries by other means, including barges and tankers.

The report's findings bring construction of the pipeline one step closer to fruition.

And, the project has its supporters such as Washington Post columnist Robert J. Samuelson who argues the

You have to give Stephen Harper credit, how he tapped into a public mood few people in politics or the journalists covering them even had a sniff of before those long lineups that straggled across Parliament Hill while Jack Layton lay in state in front of the green carpets of the House of Commons.

The state funeral for Layton was a surprise, which Harper kept secret at the tightly scripted and unusual news briefing he held the day Layton died.

He could have announced it then, that Monday afternoon just after lunch hour, since he himself had offered it to Layton's family earlier that morning, and the family accepted it.

The discussions were done through people from Harper's office who were talking to people in Layton's office.

Harper's communications director, Dimitri Soudas, who now has most of the Parliamentary Press Gallery fawning all over him after the head-butting of only a few years ago, told selected media about it that afternoon in a 'readout,' as he calls these alerts,

While Canadians across the country continue to mourn the loss of Jack Layton, a right-leaning television pundit thinks the death of the NDP leader was turned into a "public spectacle."

On his show Friday Ezra Levant of the Sun News Network ranted about the funeral, the public response and the apparent politicizing.

"Jack Layton's poor corpse has been positively put on a campaign tour bus," he said with the song Hallelujah playing in the background.

"This is a bit of OJ Simpson plus Michael Jackson plus a dash of Princess Diana . . . It's like the paparazzi have been put in charge of making this funeral really, really classy."

Levant continued his pop-culture comparisons while taking a shot at the NDP brain trust.

"This whole thing is a stage-managed political campaign. It's just gross. It's like the NDP war room is giving it one last try — 'Weekend at Bernie's'-style."

Levant also takes exception to the CN Tower being lit in orange, and disparages politicos of all stripes for their

Pauline MaroisThe Bloc Québécois was decimated in the last federal election and its provincial counterpart - the Parti Québécois - is in apparent shambles.

Meanwhile, one prominent Quebec politico is calling for another referendum on Quebec's sovereignty.

Bernard Drainville, a  PQ member who has widely been touted as a possible leader of the party, published a missive on his website in which he insisted Quebecers must be brought into the heart of the sovereigntist strategy.

Drainville suggested a PQ government should hold a "popular referendum initiative," which would involve getting people to sign a petition indicating their support for a referendum.

The citizen-based initiative would require 850,000 signatures - or about 15 per cent of the province's population - before the government would be be obliged to hold a referendum.

"We're at the point where we have to be ready to consider solutions which we might have rejected before," said Drainville, adding he believes the idea would be attractive to

Yahoo! Canada News is live blogging the state funeral for New Democratic Party Leader Jack Layton who died Monday of cancer.

The funeral is scheduled for 2 p.m. ET. Yahoo!'s live coverage will begin at 11:30 a.m.