Dear diary, it has been a few months since I last wrote and much has transpired. Here are some of the topical issues in this morning's papers.

The left has a point - to start the government, the media, the police, and anti-globalization protesters are all gearing up for the Summit of the Americas meeting to be held in Quebec City later this month.

Government officials are taking no chances to ensure the success of this conference that will draw over 9,000 delegates (mostly government officials) to Quebec. And there is great fear in senior circles that anti-globalization activists could derail the summit.

While no sane person wants to see a repeat of the violent "battle in Seattle" or dare we say it, another APEC pepper spray scandal, legitimate questions are being asked about the extent to which law enforcement officials are going and indeed, if civil liberties are threatened.

While the CTF believes that the promotion of free trade, property rights and open markets is beneficial for taxpayers, those who disagree have a legitimate right to do so. And they also have a right to request that the Canadian government make the texts of the agreements it plans to negotiate public (to date, they have not been released).

This is no different than the situation a few years back and the Kyoto protocol where Canada's position was kept secret and probably arrived at on the back of an airplane napkin en-route to Kyoto. If our sovereign government is going to negotiate multilateral agreements on our behalf, the principles of democratic transparency and open government should be adhered to. Details please, Mr. Pettigrew.

Good work Senators - yes that's right. The much-maligned second chamber has made a valuable contribution to Canada's narrow and factually challenged health care debate.

Liberal Senator Michael Kirby chairs the Senate Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology (say that three times fast) and his committee has just produced Volume 1 of a five-volume report on the Health of Canadians.

This report outlines the history of health care in Canada and offers useful data on our health status, international comparisons and explodes many of the myths about our health care system. The report can be found on the parliamentary web site (www.parl.gc.ca) and should be required reading for anyone who wishes to speak intelligibly about our health system.

Shawinigate spin-offs are positive. While backbench MPs and some media pundits are hoping for an end to the Shawinigate scandal (yes there is a conflict of interest and perhaps an abuse of power), quietly some MPs are conceding that other than question period (QP), the House is functioning extremely well.

Recently the Chief Electoral Officer gave compelling testimony before the Committee on Procedure and House Affairs and televised hearings from the Finance Committee have revealed a fair amount of intelligent questions from MPs of all partisan stripes directed toward various witnesses.

It's almost as if the excessive (to the extreme) partisanship in QP each day is forcing MPs to self-censor themselves during the real business of Parliament. Besides, as much as some Canadians may be wishing for an end to this Canadian version of "Gladiator on the Rideau" with Joe Clark starring as Maximus, it could be worse, the feds could be trying to prop up dying industries with tax dollars or dropping billions in social engineering schemes and doing real damage in the long run and we wouldn't want that now, would we