The Conservative bus just got a little less crowded.

Three senators – appointed by Stephen Harper just a few years ago – now find themselves out on the pavement after the Conservative-dominated Senate voted Tuesday to suspend them from the upper chamber.

Pamela Wallin, Mike Duffy and Patrick Brazeau, tapped by Harper in December 2008 to work double-duty as party fundraisers and senators on the public dime, join a list of other partisans who also used to be on the bus – until the politically expedient thing to do was for Harper to throw them under the bus. Don't forgot trailblazers Helena Guergis and Bev Oda.

Now everybody sing...

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There’s quite a frenzy swirling around Rob Ford after he admitted Tuesday that he has smoked crack during his tenure as mayor. Ford told reporters he wasn’t sure exactly when, because he was in a "drunken stupor" at the time.

Humour us for a moment, and let’s put the focus back on his policies and record as mayor.

Here are five reasons why the Ford mayoralty, in lock-step on matters of policy with Ford allies in the Conservative government in Ottawa, has been a disaster.

1. Cutting services

Ford’s platform promised “No service cuts.” That’s not how it turned out. In addition to drastic reductions in transit services, other areas hit have included social services, planning and heritage, parks and recreation, street cleaning and snow removal.

2. Pushing privatization

Like the Conservative government in Ottawa, Ford is a big fan of privatization. This headline sums it up pretty well: "Privatized garbage pickup a disaster from day one."

3. Dropping the ball on transit

Canada’s largest city needs a mayor who has a vision for public transit. Ford is no visionary. See: ”Rob Ford’s 1,000-year plan to build transit in Toronto.”

4. Demonizing cyclists

Just google the term along with Ford’s name and check out how many hits come up.

5. Shunning gay pride

Ford always heads to the cottage when the annual Gay Pride Parade rolls through town. This is hardly the leadership people should expect in this decade (or the last few decades) from the mayor of such a diverse and vibrant city.

Canada’s interim commissioner of the environment and sustainable development tabled his annual report in the House of Commons on Tuesday.

The report is written in government-speak. That means it's full of tempered language and measured words. And yet, the report is still utterly devastating for the Conservative government.

In the words of interim commissioner Neil Maxwell, there are "striking" results that show a pattern of "unfulfilled commitments and responsibilities."

Here's more, in his own words:

* The government has not met the legislative requirements under the Species at Risk Act. "At the current rate, it will take Environment Canada approximately 10 years to complete its backlog of recovery strategies required under the Act.

* Environment Canada has assessed ecological integrity to be less than adequate in over one half of its wildlife protected areas, which together cover an area about the size of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

* Less than half of the ecosystems assessed by Parks Canada in 2011 were in good condition (with declining trends in the condition of many).

* Environment Canada has completed less than half of the Bird Conservation Region Strategies it committed to finishing by 2010.

* Environment Canada estimates that monitoring for 30 percent of the bird species in Canada is insufficient to determine whether they are at risk.

* More than 70 percent of national wildlife areas and about 55 percent of migratory bird sanctuaries are considered to have less than adequate ecological integrity. 

* Most of Environment Canada’s 19 draft targets to meet the goals of the International Convention on Biological Diversity are not sufficiently specific and key actions for achieving the targets have not been developed. Without details on key actions that need to be taken, it is not clear how Canada will meet its biodiversity targets by 2020. 

* Environment Canada is still operating with outdated management plans for most of its 54 national wildlife areas. On average, management plans date from 1992."

Photo: a.poulos. Used under a Creative Commons BY 2.0 licence.

Fresh off a victory for social conservatives at the Conservative Party convention, Langley MP Mark Warawa returned to Ottawa on Monday and tabled a petition highlighting the party's new policy: condemning the discrimination against girls through gender selection.

Stephen Harper knows what this is all about - the reopening of the abortion debate. That’s why he made sure a gender selection motion tabled by Warawa in the House of Commons last year got shot down. Harper said repeatedly that "he did not intend to reopen the debate on abortion."

The social conservative wing of the Conservative Party doesn't appear to be listening:

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