Speaking with reporters at the end of his visit to the capital Kiyv, Justin Trudeau accused Putin of "executing" opposition leader Alexei Navalny. [Global]

Four distinctive ministerial types are also identified. Activists are distinguished by their dominance over policy initiation, advocates are characterized most by policy supplementation and maintenance, managers are mostly tasked with maintaining the policy status quo, and networkers are distinctive in their share of coordination and information tasks. A really interesting analysis. [Canadian Public Administration]

Hirtle works as a tire builder at the Michelin plant in Waterville and is serving his first term representing District 6 on the Municipality of the County of Kings. He said he can relate to constituents in the riding. “They’re getting somebody who has lived a common working-class life,” he said. Notes from DA: Nova Scotia could be a very bleak place for the federal Liberals if an election were held right now. My model indicates that Conservative Hirtle would take Kings-Hants from Liberal incumbent Kody Blois as part of of a wave that would sweep all 8 Liberal MPs from the province. The CPC currently hold three seats and look to pick up five -- and almost all of those CPC wins would be by double digits. In the new riding of  Sackville—Bedford—Preston, I have the CPCs up by about 6 points but that's the closest. The Liberals' numbers have dropped so far in the province that the NDP now have three seats in my model.  [SaltWire]

Controversial doctor from Cambridge is region's first Conservative nominee in the lead up to the next federal election. Notes from DA - Just came across this  article from November yesterday. The article notes candidate Strauss is a critical care doctor who quit a teaching post at Queen's University and subsequently sued them for defaming him; resigned as the chief medical officer of health in Haldimand-Norfolk after questioning vaccine and mask mandates; and engaged in social media campaigns denouncing public health policies during the pandemic The incumbent in this riding is LPC MP Valerie Bradford. As of Feb 15, LPC HQ did not have any officially nominated candidate in this riding. In my model, based on data from multiple pollsters, I have the CPC winning this riding by 15 points. CPC lost here in 2021 by less than 2 points. [Cambridge Today]

“This is not about the Liberal Party. This is about, if you would have told me 15 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago when I was a ward of the court, that I was going to someday be part of the decision-making and Community Services, I wouldn’t have believed you," Maguire said. [SaltWire]

A rookie legislature member for Alberta’s NDP is making a bid for the party's top job, promising a campaign focused on climate change and drought. [CP]

Corb Lund says that after meeting with Energy Minister Brian Jean, he doesn't believe the minister knows enough about the issue. [Global]

The comments from the Barreau du Québec follow Legault's statements Thursday accusing the PQ leader of prostrating himself before Ottawa regarding a Court of Appeal decision. [Global]

Grewal is now one of five Sask. Party MLAs to announce this month that they are not seeking reelection. [Regina Leader Post]

Negotiators face an unofficial deadline of the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan around March 10, a period that often sees heightened Israeli-Palestinian tensions. [AP]

On this occasion, we also pay tribute to the extraordinary courage of Alexei Navalny and stand with his wife, children, and loved ones. He sacrificed his life fighting against the Kremlin’s corruption and for free and fair elections in Russia. We call on the Russian government to fully clarify the circumstances around his death. [PMO]

Emmanuel Macron's arrival at the Salon de l'Agriculture in Paris on Saturday provoked an explosive reaction from angry farmers. [Le Monde]

Andrew MacDougall:  In a democracy, the challenge is how to make social media function more like a professional newsroom, not how to make a professional newsroom more like the internet. [Ottawa Citizen]

Across 27 countries surveyed, people generally see social media as more of a good thing than a bad thing for democracy. [Pew Research Center]

Riverside, Iowa, self-proclaimed hometown of Star Trek's Captain James T. Kirk, has a erected a statue of their fictional hero, and Captain Kathryn Janeway has one in her future birthplace Bloomington, Indiana.
Vulcan, Canada, hosts a monument to famous not-so-local-Vulcan Spock, and now, if a group of enterprising Star Trek fanatics have their way, Valdez, Alaska, will soon be home to another Trekkie landmark. [The Register]