A statement Prime Minister Stephen Harper made on Wednesday about when he first learned his former chief of staff gave Senator Mike Duffy $90,000 to repay expenses, under scrutiny at the time by a Senate investigation, conflicts with a timeline of responses from his office to a reporter’s inquiries about the payment.

Senator Mike Duffy and Senator Pamela Wallin were both paid campaign expenses by Conservative election candidates in the 2011 federal election, Elections Canada records show.

Election campaign appearances by Senator Mike Duffy in 2011 that are now part of a controversy over his Senate expense claims during the same time period, were part of a tour of campaign stops by high-profile party members organized by the national Conservative campaign headquarters to boost local candidates, says a Nova Scotia Conservative MP who shared in paying Senator Duffy’s expenses.

The Finance Department alone plans to spend $10-million on its own over the next 12 months on the federal government’s ‘Economic Action Plan’ budget advertisements, which will bring total costs for the controversial ad campaign to a minimum of $104.8-million over four years.

Meanwhile, the government’s conflict of interest commissioner has formally contacted Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office in an investigation into how and why the PM’s chief of staff rescued Conservative Senator Mike Duffy from a scandal over ineligible living and travel expense claims by giving the Senator $90,000 to repay the money before an independent audit report was made public.

Liberals say win indicates a change coming in Atlantic region, but tough to project Labrador byelection result nationally.

The government has given the House Finance Committee until midnight on Tuesday, May 28, to pass the legislation and to report it back to the House of Commons for third and final debate and passage.

The federal Cabinet wants to take control over collective bargaining at the CBC to rein in the cost of wages and pension plans for unionized employees, not out of a desire to interfere politically with the Crown corporation’s independence as Canada’s national public broadcaster, says government backbencher Ryan Leef.

Federal public servants in the media branches of more than two dozen government agencies and departments have used the term ‘Harper Government’ to announce federal funding, tax breaks, and a range of government handouts and projects in more than 500 news releases since last December.

'All this jet-setting by politicians is in bad taste in these times,' says Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

A Hill Times review of annual reports from nearly one-third of Canada’s federal Crown corporations and union contract terms for three of the biggest—the CBC, Canada Post and Via Rail—raises questions about the timing and intent of legislation that will give Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Cabinet unprecedented control over Crown corporation collective bargaining.