Last Friday, Saskatchewan residents received an automated message criticizing the province’s new federal riding boundaries. The calls weren’t identified and the Conservatives denied involvement until Tuesday when communications director Fred DeLorey released a statement blaming “internal miscommunication” for the slip up. Meanwhile, it appears that what seemed to be an isolated occurrence of a robocall is linked to the massive campaign that happened in 2011.

The NDP’s Unity Act states that if Quebec sovereigntists can garner 50%+1 of the votes in a referendum, or a bare majority, Quebec can form its own country. The bill would repeal the Clarity Act which was introduced in 1995 when Quebec came marginally short of separating from the rest of Canada and inherits the bulk of the views that were taken with the Sherbrooke Declaration of 2005. Additionally, this kind of policy would never work within the NDP itself.

Who says Canadian politics is boring? Despite being in the first majority government since 2004, politics was easy as government shenanigan continued and controversy ruled The Canadian Political Scene. This post will round up 2012 into one bite-sized image with the big scandals and the party progress reports.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has approved the CNOOC-Nexen takeover deal and Canada is now trapped in a 31 year deal where China will almost always get the final say. The Chinese government does not believe in our free and capitalist society, remaining totalitarian with a communist system that has one of the worst standards for human rights in the world. This was once a concern for Harper whom slammed the door on China but now, out of virtually nowhere, not only is China an important trade partner, it is trusted enough to own, for 31 years, one of Canada’s most strategic resources that is in very high demand and low supply around the world. In other words, Canada got royally ripped off with its flat rate $15 billion in one-time revenue.

Newly appointed Conservative Senators are finding their perks rather appealing – so appealing that they are cheating taxpayers to cash in. First Patrick Brazeau abused the system, and now Mike Duffy. We can all agree they should repay their takings and we all agree their expenses will never outweigh their salaries. We can, then, agree the housing allowance perk should be scrapped and the savings be refunded.

The Conservatives have spent the past few elections and inter-election periods demonizing a carbon tax that they themselves have promoted. At a Canada-UK Chamber of Commence meeting on May 29, 2008, Stephen Harper said that his government has applied a $65 per ton price on carbon, which we all know translates to a $65 per ton tax on carbon which is a carbon tax.

The Conservatives are stellar at economic management – enough so that they managed to bring Canada to its highest level of debt in history. Canada’s debt hit $600 billion yesterday and shows yet again how competent the Conservatives are at managing Canada’s economy – as if their chronic and secretive spending habits and their new round of deficits weren’t bad enough.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty confirmed that Canada is in deeper economic trouble than anyone was willing to tell us. They didn’t want us to know how much they actually spent and they tried their best to hide the numbers, as the Auditor General pointed out last month, but as we crunch the numbers, we see that this government has spent more than any government in Canadian history.

Developing Canada’s oil sands brings great promise to the Canadian economy and allows for an opportunity to emerge as a major player in the energy market. The oil that sits unrefined in Alberta opens doors to vast new trade opportunities, which each bring long term benefits. Most importantly, Canada’s oil presents an opportunity to lower fuel prices nationwide and offset some of the tax burden from middle class families to fund the services Canadians cherish. Overall, if exploited wisely by Canada’s private industries and used for the right objectives, Alberta’s oil sands present an opportunity to bring great benefits to this country… Why would you want to give that away?

The Conservatives may have enacted austerity and they may be calling themselves good economic managers, but as we speak, they are not only spending recklessly, they are trying to hide their spending from the public and from elected MPs in the House of Commons.