Would you still make your weekly or monthly shopping trip to the United States if you had to pay an additional fee each time you crossed a land border by car or bus?

It appears that such a 'crossing fee' could soon be a reality.

In the face of daunting budget cuts, that is one of the ideas up for consideration by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as explained in its fiscal 2014 budget proposal:

"SEC.544. (a) The Commissioner of the United States Customs and Border Protection shall:

"(1)conduct a study assessing the feasibility and cost relating to establishing and collecting a land border crossing fee for both land border pedestrians and passenger vehicles along the northern and southwest borders of the United States; the study should include:

"(A)the feasibility of collecting from existing operators on the land border such as bridge commissions, toll operators, commercial passenger bus, and commercial passenger rail;

"(B)requirements to collect at land ports of entry where

Read More »from Americans eyeing ‘crossing fee’ for passenger vehicles at Canada-U.S. land borders

Peter Van Loan (Reuters)Presumably as a result of the Boston marathon explosions, the Harper government is putting its proposed anti-terrorism bill on top of their priority list.

[ Related: ‘Give us evidence,’ demands Canadian family of Boston bombing suspects ]

On Friday, Government House Leader Peter Van Loan made the following statement in Parliament:

Mr. Speaker, I wish to make a brief statement respecting the business of the House next week. As I said at the start of question period, leadership requires decisive and serious action in response to the serious threats of violent terrorism.

In order to give members of this House an opportunity to express their views on the appropriate way to respond to terrorist violence, on Monday and Tuesday the House will debate Bill S-7, the Combating Terrorism Act. This bill is at its final stage in Parliament and I call upon all members of this place to pass this bill, we don't need further study - we need action.

As a result, the government business originally

Read More »from Harper government to fast track anti-terrorism bill

Over the past couple of years, the opposition parties have complained 'ad nauseum,' about the Harper government's penchant to limit debate in the House of Commons.

Well, now, according to the NDP, this government has set the record for imposing time allocation — a procedural tool that allows a government to set strict limits on the time for debate.

According to the NDP figures, released earlier this week, Harper has used time allocation 31 times — since May 2011 — in the 41st parliamentary session. That's one more than former Prime Minister Jean Chretien did in the 36th session of Parliament and two more times than the duo of Brian Mulroney and Kim Campbell did between 1988 and 1993.

And look for Harper to shatter the record — after all, he has two more years left in his current mandate.

[ Related: Was Harper justified in attacking Trudeau over Boston Marathon comments? ]

"The Conservatives are running roughshod over Parliament and our democracy," NDP House Leader Nathan Cullen wrote

Read More »from NDP hammers Harper government for shutting down debate

Nationally, Justin Trudeau ran a typical front runner campaign in the race to become the leader of the federal Liberal Party. For the most part, he spoke in platitudes and avoided any real discussion about specific policies.

With a big lead in the polls, B.C. NDP leader Adrian Dix seems to incorporating the same strategy.

[ Related: B.C. politician unintentionally directs public to teen porn website ]

Over the past week, ahead of a May 14th election, the New Democrats have finally been rolling out their campaign platform but it's strewn with a lot 'reviews', 'audits' and 'we'll see's'.

As is evident by this video featuring Dix and CTV News reporter, the media is getting a little annoyed by it.

Veteran Vancouver Sun columnist Vaughn Palmer did a masterful job chronicling the NDP's 'policies' on CKNW radio on Friday morning:

The NDP is riding a wave of change we've seen the polls on that. People think it's time for a change, and the NDP is promising change.

But when you dig down there

Read More »from B.C. NDP leader Adrian Dix running a “we’ll see” campaign

UPDATE: Senator Mike Duffy says he paid back housing allowance, Senate confirms

Senator Mike DuffyCue the outrage — good old Mike Duffy is back at it again.

Global News is reporting that Duffy has still not paid back thousands of dollars in Senate living allowances as he promised he would almost two months ago. In fact, he might never pay the money back.

A day after dodging questions from Global News, Duffy said he is waiting for an audit to come out before repaying the money.

“We haven’t heard from Deloitte. But I said I’m a man of my word, and if repayment is required, it’ll be repaid,” Duffy said outside the Senate Thursday.

“I didn’t say I made a mistake. I said I may have made a mistake,” he said.

“Words are important.”

Hold on a second.

You'll recall, a couple of months ago, Duffy faced a barrage of negative media attention with regard to allegations that he claimed a Senate living allowances that he wasn't legally entitled to.

The living allowance is for individuals who keep a 'second home' in

Read More »from Senator Mike Duffy appears to flip flop on promise to pay back living allowance

Screen grab from justinoverhishead.caDespite a bit of a backlash from both traditional and social media sources, the Conservatives are a patting themselves on their backs for a job well-done on the Trudeau attack ads.

Earlier this week, just hours after the Liberals elected Justin Trudeau as their new leader, the Tories surprised no one with attack ads which included pictures of Trudeau doing a strip tease and a much older clip of him saying that "Quebecers are better than the rest of Canada."

[ Related: Tories release first attack ads against Justin Trudeau: “He’s in way over his head” ]

The 'media' was, appropriately, quick to point out that Trudeau's strip tease was from a 2011 fundraising gala to raise money to fight liver disease while the 'Quebecers' quote was Justin paraphrasing something his father had told him.

On Wednesday, the Canadian Press reported that the attack ad backlash fueled a Liberal party fundraising drive: According to CP, the party raised $336,000 in the 48 hours following the leadership Read More »from Tories undaunted by criticisms about Trudeau attack ads

PRIME MINISTER STEPHEN HARPER WITH CHINESE PRESIDENT HU JINTAOThe Harper government has signed on the dotted line but the NDP is still fighting the battle.

The Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPPA) is front and centre in the House of Commons, on Thursday, the NDP introduced a motion urging the government to inform China that it will not ratify the agreement in its current form.

[ Related: Canadians see a land of opportunity in China ]

Critics of the controversial agreement, signed by the government last September, say that the deal hasn't been debated in the House, that it's not reciprocal and that it would allow Chinese companies to buyout Canada's natural resource sectors.

The most controversial issue, however, seems to be a provision in the treaty that would allow Chinese companies to sue Canadian governments — in front of a third-party arbitrator — if the government does anything that threatens the company's profits.

Left-leaning organizations, such as Leadnow and the Council of Canadians, are asking the

Read More »from New Democrats make last-ditch effort to stop FIPPA trade deal with China

Now, this is what you would call a 'big oops.'

A respected Liberal MLA running for re-election in British Columbia has inadvertently been directing supporters to a hard-core porn website.

According to CBC News, Linda Reid's campaign website is located at LindaReid.ca. Unfortunately, her personal Facebook page and website had listed her campaign website as www.lindareid.com — a website filled with pictures of what appears to be teenage girls partaking in graphic sexual activities.

[ Related: B.C. NDP axe Dayleen Van Ryswyk for remarks targeting aboriginals ]

At first, Reid suggested she had been hacked, but the Liberal Party later admitted that it was more likely that a campaign staffer made a simple typo. Indeed, lindareid.com, has been registered and owned by the same person since 2010.

Reid shouldn't feel too bad — as we move forward in the digital age, web domain gaffes are likely to become more commonplace in Canada's political sphere.

We've already seen a couple of them:

Read More »from B.C. politician unintentionally directs public to teen porn website