Flaherty’s new budget outlined the increase of retirement age from 65 to 67 but meanwhile the golden pensions of MPs remain in tact and will only be discussed this fall. Again, the Conservatives put ideology ahead of the wellbeing of the population, but don’t count on the opposition to provide a real alternative.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty introduced yesterday the first budget since the Conservatives won their coveted majority. The budget aims to cut $5.2 billion over 3 years by cutting an average of 7% per program and will phase out over 19,000 civil service jobs. It is worth noting that in the first 2 years of their first mandate back in 2006, the Conservatives increased program spending by over 40% and this budget is a far cry from restoring Canada to a prudent economic state.

Winning 57% of the votes in the fourth ballot, Thomas Mulcair beats Brian Topp in his bid for NDP leadership.

The NDP are in the process of voting for Jack Layton’s successor after a long leadership race that will shape the face and role of the Official Opposition.

The Conservatives may have attacked Bob Rae in a recent set of attack ads but the Liberals are exchanging fire, blasting them on their economic record. However, no ad has been released – yet.

Rae didn’t make his defense against Conservative attacks of his record easy. By admitting on January 11, that the deficit increased and so did the debt, and admitting that some decisions were unpopular, Rae played into the Tory machine and if history has taught us anything, Liberals who get targeted by the machine struggle to win national support.

With Conservatives claiming Bob Rae isn’t ruling out a bid for Liberal Leadership in the 2013 convention, the Conservatives have taken the time and effort to attack him on his record as Premier of Ontario.

In a by-election today, Jack Layton’s old riding of Toronto-Danforth remained NDP as candidate Craig Scott won 59% of the votes.

On today’s Power and Politics, Dean Del Mastro was again put into the hot seat as he was introduced to the CBC investigation that found links between voters who got robocalls and their response to Conservative recruiters.