Politics Today: Has Trudeau's ghost finally left Alberta?

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Politics Today is your daily guide to some of the stories we're watching in Ottawa and across Canada, by The Globe and Mail's team of political reporters.

Some decorum in the House

The House of Commons has had its share of incivility over the years, but with even routine speeches by MPs become more partisan by the year, most QP watchers are calling for something to be done. Enter the NDP. House Leader Nathan Cullen will unveil a simple proposal this morning to give the Speaker more authority to regulate debate, which the party hopes will improve civility in the chamber. Will it work? And what will MPs say when it comes up for debate? Let's hope it doesn't get too ironic.

A Canadian guard in Mali

There is no combat mission in Mali, the foreign affairs department insists, but the Globe learned last night special forces troops are on the ground to protect Canada's diplomats.

Has Trudeau's ghost finally left Alberta?

As Justin Trudeau travels every corner of Canada in his quest for the Liberal leadership, there was danger of running into his father's ghost in Alberta. But instead, he may have won some new friends. "Being a tiny little town and to have somebody that is running for leadership to think of us is a good thing," Ellen Dunn, a resident of Vegreville, told the Globe's Dawn Walton. "I think it helps people realize they're [MPs] not just far away. Taking an interest in a small town goes a long way."

On the question of the NDP's proposal to tinker with the Clarity Act, Mr. Trudeau said: "Mr. Mulcair's willingness to equivocate, his willingness to be open to a 50 per cent plus one vote on sovereignty takes us back in a direction that we don't want to go. It's a very careful political calculation by him to appease his strong nationalist base in Quebec. And for me it's absolutely unacceptable and yet another example of where co-operation between the Liberals and the NDP in the coming years is out of the question for me."

A Liberal exodus

Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan had planned to leave his long political career and jump to Bay Street if his friend Sandra Pupatello won the party leadership. She lost. But as Adam Radwanski reports, Mr. Duncan may be leaving anyway, and so might a number of other veteran Liberals. The half-full glass is that between an exodus of the old guard and a new leader in Kathleen Wynne, the party might get some much-needed renewal. The half-empty glass is that the Liberals will suddenly need to defend their minority across a scattering of vulnerable ridings.

@pmharper, no sweater vests in sight

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's #dayinthelife set the political twittersphere in a tizzy yesterday, with the PMO tweeting to show "what a normal day for me looks like." The hashtag was another step in a PMO strategy to bypass traditional media, but where most social-media campaigns have tried to make politicians look more hip, Mr. Harper ends up looking very ... studious.

Watch for a video this morning with media reporter Steve Ladurantaye and I chatting about the strategy behind #dayinthelife.