OTTAWA - Canadians will get a better idea today of when disgraced Sen. Mike Duffy will go on trial on criminal charges.
What happens when Duffy's lawyer appears in an Ottawa courtroom could have an impact on the next federal election — specifically, whether it'll be held as scheduled in the fall of 2015, or earlier.
Donald Bayne has said the suspended senator wants to go to trial sooner rather than later.
Duffy faces 31 criminal charges, including breach of trust and fraud, in connection with Senate housing and expense claims.
The senator also faces a bribery charge for a cheque he accepted from Prime Minister Stephen Harper's former chief of staff, Nigel Wright, to reimburse the Senate $90,000.
Here are some other events set to take place in and around Ottawa:
— Statistics Canada takes a look at the retail sector's summer sales numbers in a release on retail trade figures for July;
— Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz will talk by teleconference about his recent trade mission to India and the APEC meeting in China;
— Liberal MPs Ralph Goodale and John McCallum will outline their plans for their party's opposition day motion in the House of Commons;
— Infrastructure Minister Denis Lebel will make an announcement concerning the Milident dental laboratory;
— Employment Minister Jason Kenney will speak at the Canadian Club of Ottawa;
— And the Parliamentary Budget Office will unveil its ideas for making balanced budgets the law of the land in a report entitled "A Potential Federal Balanced Budget Legislation: Context, Impact and Design."
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