Nova Scotia finally gets a public inquiry Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here to get it delivered weekday mornings. More than three months after the April 18-19 shooting spree that left 22 Nova Scotians dead, Public Safety Minister Bill Blair and Nova Scotia's justice minister, Mark Furey, yesterday announced a full public inquiry into the tragedy. This was a reversal of last week's announcement that there would only be a limited "review" of the shooting and the RCMP's response. Furey and Blair said they've "listened to Nova Scotians," and listed families, survivors, advocates and Nova Scotia MPs among those who had the feds' ear. The first three cohorts had been calling for an inquiry for months—and were justifiably livid at last week's attempt to avoid a public inquiry. Only in recent days did the party's federal caucus in the province, which was never consulted, near full revolt. It wasn't just maritime Liberals in Ottawa who applauded the about-face. Sukh Dhaliwal, a B.C. MP, called the inquiry "the correct move and an example of how citizen voices do shape the decisions of our government." As long as the right voices speak up. Maybe next time, listen first: Paul Wells first joined calls for a public inquiry on June 20. Only July 9, after weeks of crickets, he renewed that call. A week later, he wrote again—and committed to doing so every week there wasn't an inquiry. On July 23, after the federal-provincial announcement of an "independent review" of the killings, Wells wrote again about the deafness of governments to the wishes of their people. Yesterday, he wrote a final chapter (for now). There’s something satisfying in watching a house of cards collapse. It’s reassuring to be reminded that there is, in fact, a level of absurdity that is unsustainable from people who depend on votes for their positions. And so, with due respect to the Kielburger brothers and their marathon testimony to the Commons Finance Committee on Tuesday, by far the day’s most heartening spectacle was the governments of Nova Scotia and Canada finally closing a show that had run too long, the Refusal To Hold A Public Inquiry. Ah, yes, the Kielburger brothers. They of the drama with so many conflicting numbers and confusing dates. When a bunch of parliamentarians sit with each other for five-plus hours of testimony on the scandal of the summer, and the co-founders of the charity at the heart of the matter are there for the whole show, politics is eventually going to get in the way. Marie-Danielle Smith, who watched every second so you could do other things, endured the sideshows and offers five takeaways from the Kielburgers' testimony. MPs can perhaps be forgiven for falling into partisan patterns, but this sometimes led to curious veerings off course. Precious minutes were spent litigating details such as the date of Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s testimony to the committee—which was only six days ago. Conservative MP Michael Cooper, for his part, was interested in the means of transportation Morneau’s family might have taken to get from the airport to WE accommodations during trips they have since reimbursed the charity for. One of the proffered methods: “motorized canoes.” What's the effect of the WE controversy on opinion polls? Not good, if you're a Liberal. A new Leger poll pushed the governing party down to 35 per cent. The Tories stood pat at 30 per cent, the NDP was up slightly—and the Bloc Québécois, always keen to gain at the expense of Liberals, now leads in Quebec. (Philippe J Fournier is chronicling the exciting world of summertime polls.) Acronym of the day: Rheal Fortin, the committee's Bloc MP, suffered oft-insurmountable technical difficulties when it was his turn to question the Kielburgers. Fortin complained that he'd gathered all the hardware and software he needed, but couldn't do his job with such a poor connection. Ian Capstick, a longtime denizen of Parliament Hill—and keen observer of the meeting yesterday—came up with a cheekier explanation for the glitches: PEBCAK. Never tweet: Health Minister Patty Hajdu tweeted a couple of photos that don't appear to invite the ire of trolls. But then again, who ever invites a troll anywhere? Hajdu wrote: "Long conference calls checking in and coordinating with my teams in Thunder Bay and Ottawa!" And for that, the minister found herself on the wrong side of that precious ratio of replies to retweets and/or likes. As Ottawa digested another mega-news cycle in the throes of the dog days, Peter MacKay also had news. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation reported the Tory frontrunner would sell the PM's Harrington Lake cottage if he became prime minister. In what might be a nod to rival Erin O'Toole's promise to privatize parts of CBC News, MacKay also said he'd consider selling CBC HQ in downtown Toronto. —Nick Taylor-Vaisey | 
