Eight politics stories you might have missed over the Easter weekend

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POLITICS BRIEFING

By Chris Hannay (@channay)

With even the Prime Minister and his family taking the Easter weekend off for a little R&R – on Newfoundland's Fogo Island, a place described as "one of the four corners of the earth" – you could be forgiven if your mind drifted from politics for a few days. Here's what you missed.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW THIS MORNING

> As the Liberals work to try to balance the budget in "about" five years, part of the equation is how to boost the revenue side without introducing new taxes. Finance Minister Bill Morneau says the government can gain about $3-billion in revenue by cancelling boutique tax credits, such as the children's fitness credit that was eliminated in last week's budget. Mr. Morneau made the point in a wide-ranging interview with The Globe and Mail, where he also talked about basic income guarantees and changes to employment insurance. (for subscribers)

> The budget didn't have much for the RCMP, who say they are 500 Mounties short of meeting their obligations for policing and national investigations.

> Separately, the government is planning to cut millions from its advertising and consultant budgets.

> A senior policy adviser for Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion said Saudi Arabia had "bought the silence" of Western countries by awarding them lucrative contracts. The adviser, academic Jocelyn Coulon, made the comments in January shortly before being hired by the Liberals.

> Canada's tech companies are asking the federal government to make it easier to hire foreign talent.

> Rookie Liberal MPs – of which there are many – say parliamentary procedure and committees have been "quite a learning curve."

> The Ontario legislature – decorated with portraits and statues of past male premiers and political leaders – has passed a motion to build monuments for Agnes Macphail and Rae Luckock, the first female MPPs in the province.

> And Alberta's two small-c conservative parties appear to be in no rush to unite. "A merger isn't really on my mind," said interim Progressive Conservative leader Ric McIver. "You know, almost everyone in the Wildrose Party used to be a member of our party. The fact that the right is split is because the Wildrose split away – anyone concerned about a split in the right should remember who split it."

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WHAT EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT

"Senators on both sides of the aisle – Conservatives, and Senate Liberals who are no longer part of Mr. Trudeau's caucus – have already carved up the chamber's budgets, leaving [government representative Peter] Harder with little. Many Senate Liberals say Mr. Trudeau's government was "naive" to expect automatic co-operation. Now Mr. Harder, with no caucus, a small budget and few levers to influence other senators, can expect a bumpy initiation." – Campbell Clark (for subscribers).

John Ibbitson (Globe and Mail): "Donald Trump howls the fears of white, working-class voters raging against the elites who ignore or belittle them. Could it happen in Canada? Yes, if we're not careful." (for subscribers)

Jeffrey Simpson (Globe and Mail): "It is a pity that most coverage of aboriginal-business affairs focuses on conflict, because there are many examples of co-operation and long-term understandings. It has been estimated that more than 300 agreements exist between aboriginal communities and mining companies. These bring jobs, training, money, a wage economy and hope to aboriginal communities. And yet, a division exists sometimes within, sometimes between or among, aboriginal communities about whether to participate in resource development. The opponents or doubters get all the attention." (for subscribers)

Adam Radwanski (Globe and Mail): "The evidence, so far, is that Mr. Trudeau's Liberals – unlike the last ones to govern federally, or those running the country's second-largest government in Ontario – will if anything govern to the left of where they campaigned."

Andrew Coyne (National Post): "To the extent that economic growth has been sluggish over the last decade, it has had little to do with domestic factors and everything to do with the effects of, first, a world-wide financial crisis (2008-09) and its aftermath, and second, a worldwide collapse in the price of oil (2014-15)."

Kate Heartfield (Ottawa Citizen): "Justin Trudeau's decision to dig the country deeper into debt should be a major ballot question in four years. If it's not, the Conservatives will have failed so utterly that they might as well fold up the tent."

Terry Milewski (CBC): "Like [Jim] Flaherty in 2012 and again in 2014, Morneau has now punted the budget for defence procurement down the road."

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