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Yesterday's Speech from the Throne reads more like a list of what this government sees as its main achievements than a true framework for going forward. New initiatives are few and far between, sandwiched between pages of self-congratulatory recap of the natural gas strategy, the jobs plan and highlights from the last budget.

It was either the best of Throne Speeches or it was the worst of Throne Speeches. Heck, maybe it was both at the same time.

Yesterday being the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens, maybe there's something powerfully symbolic in that assessment of the first Throne Speech by the Progressive Conservative government of Alison Redford.

Perhaps the government's new mantra for the budget and the throne speech is telling in its ordering. First priority is low tax, and then if jobs and growth also happen, well that's a happy coincidence.

It was interesting to hear the throne speech acknowledging that government spending like that in the stimulus program can create jobs and drive growth. That is to say, that the Harper government knows how to create jobs and a reliable way to do that is to hire Canadians to build infrastructure.

In the brouhaha over the proposal to change "all our sons command" in the national anthem, the media and most of us missed an important phrase in the Throne Speech where the government said it would take steps to endorse the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples  “in a manner fully consistent with Canada’s Constitution and laws”..  Canada is one of the only countries left in the world that has refused to sign this historic document, which was adopted by the UN in 2007.   Below is a statement of most of the First Nations groups in Canada and their allies