Rick Runion/AP 1. Cyberbullying is on the agenda, and we’re getting a sexting law Citing the cases of Amanda Todd, Rehtaeh Parsons and others, the government will “introduce legislation giving police and prosecutors new tools to effectively address cyberbullying that involves criminal invasion of privacy, intimidation and personal abuse.” Spreading photos by text or online could become illegal – a new law will ban the “non-consensual distribution of intimate images.”

iStockphoto 2. You won’t have to order bundled cable TV The speech included a nod to all those frustrated by the requirement to order dozens or hundreds of channels just to get the ones you want. “Our government believes Canadian families should be able to choose the combination of television channels they want. It will require channels to be unbundled while protecting Canadian jobs,” the speech said.

iStockphoto 3. Your roaming charges will drop The speech said the government will “take steps to reduce roaming costs and networks within Canada,” and said wireless rates have fallen nearly 20 per cent since 2008. It didn’t say how that would be done, but noted Canadians pay some of the developed world’s highest phone bills. “As families know – especially families with teenagers – the monthly bills add up,” the Governor-General said in the speech.

Fernando Morales/The Globe and Mail 4. Victims of crime are getting their own bill of rights The government will table the bill of rights “to restore victims to their rightful place at the heart of our justice system,” saying that “for too long, the voices of victims have been silenced while the system coddled criminals.”

Adrian Wyld/CP 5. Deficits will be illegal The government will bring in a balanced budget law, one that will require “balanced budgets during normal economic times, and concrete timelines for returning to balance in the event of an economic crisis,” the speech says. The government also renewed a pledge to balance the budget by 2015, and return the debt-to-GDP ratio to pre-recession levels by 2017. Other provinces have anti-deficit laws on the books, but critics note that they’re frequently broken.

Larry MacDougal 6. Canada doesn’t want another XL Foods The government pledged to “strengthen food inspection regimes,” but didn’t say how it would.

Peter Power/The Globe and Mail 7. Killing a police dog will be a crime The government said it “recognizes the daily risks taken by police officers and their service animals. It will bring forward Quanto’s law in honour of them.” This is an apparent reference to Quanto, the Edmonton Police dog killed this month.

Gloria Nieto/The Globe and Mail 8. Your banking fees could drop The government pledged to expand “no-cost basic banking services” and crack down on predatory payday loan lenders.

Chris Wattie/Reuters 9. It’s not an inquiry, but it’s something The government said it would “renew its efforts to address the issue of missing and murdered Aboriginal women.” Many have called for an inquiry – the latest being a UN official following a nine-day visit to Canada.

Erik De Castro/Reuters 10. Railways will carry more insurance In the aftermath of Lac-Megantic, questions were raised about the level of insurance railways must carry. That’s about to change. “Railway companies must be able to bear the cost of their actions. Our government will require shippers and railways to carry additional insurance so they are held accountable,” the speech said. The government will also “take targeted action” to increase safety measures governing the transport of dangerous goods.

Chris Bolin for The Globe and Mail 11. Alberta’s floods proved too expensive for the status quo After devastating flooding hit southern Alberta, including the Prime Minister’s home city of Calgary, the government will “develop a National Disaster Mitigation Program” to reduce the impact of natural disasters. Under the current system, the government is on the hook for 90 per cent of the costs of the disaster – potentially billions of dollars. The speech also cited the Lac-Megantic derailment in underscoring the need for a disaster strategy.

Gary Cameron/Reuters 12. Malala Yousafzai will be a Canadian The girls’ education advocate and survivor of a Taliban assassination attempt will be given honourary citizenship, and had already confirmed the move through her Twitter account. In the speech, the Governor-General called her a “remarkable young woman” who “faced down evil and oppression and now speaks boldly for those who are silenced.”

Sean Kilpatrick/CP 13. Nothing new on the Senate - yet Near the very end of the lengthy speech, which was given in the Senate chamber, the government addressed the elephant in the room in the aftermath of a series of Senate spending controversies. “The government continues to believe the status quo in the Senate of Canada is unacceptable. The Senate must be reformed or, as with its provincial counterparts, vanish,” the speech said, echoing a line used regularly by Conservatives. The government will wait for the Supreme Court’s ruling on what powers it has for Senate reform or abolition.

Devaan Ingraham/Reuters 14. Voting laws are changing, but we don’t know how Amid the robocall scandal and battles a handful of Conservative MPs had or are having with Elections Canada, the government is changing “Canada’s elections laws to uphold the integrity of our voting system.” No details were provided, other than the changes will be in effect by 2015, the year of the next federal election.

Ruben Sprich/Reuters 15. We’re close on an EU Trade deal A key focus of the Harper government, the trade deal is within reach. Canada ‘will soon complete negotiations” on a deal, which it estimated could create 80,000 new jobs.

Nathan VanderKlippe/The Globe and Mail 16. Beware, pipelines – standards are going up Canada will set higher “safety standards” for companies “operating pipelines,” including increasing required liability insurance. That could be seen as an effort to address concerns over potential oil spills. The government will also create “a world-class tanker safety system in Canada,” the speech said.

Brett Gundlock for the Globe and Mail 17. Polluters will pay! But not through a carbon tax After taking a shot at the notion of a “carbon tax” in a morning speech to his caucus, Mr. Harper’s government stressed that resource development “must respect the environment.” That means it will “enshrine the polluter-pay system into law,” but it’s unclear what that will mean. The government has long pledged rules on what emissions the energy sector can churn out, and they’ve been long-delayed. The Throne Speech renewed the pledge anyhow, saying it will work with provinces “to reduce emissions from the oil and gas sectors while ensuring Canadian companies remain competitive.”

Drawn by W.H. Browne 18. We want to find Sir John Franklin’s lost expedition Saying “the story of the North is the story of Canada,” the government pledged “renewed determination and an expanded team of partners to discover the fate of Sir John Franklin’s lost Arctic expedition.”

Chris Wattie/Reuters 19. Red tape is still bad The government will “enshrine” the “one-for-one” rule in a new law. That means that one regulation will be dropped for every new one added. The Throne Speech also pledged to “cut additional red tape” at the Canada Revenue Agency – for businesses, in particular.

Adrian Wyld/CP 20. It’s never too early to plan a birthday party The government pledged a series of initiatives to mark Canada’s looming 150th birthday in 2017. Most of the options laid out are militaristic – including rededicating the National War Memorial and strengthening cadet and Junior Ranger programs – but Ottawa also pledged to “support community projects, local celebrations and other initiatives to commemorate this historic occasion.”

Getty Images 21. You can drive to the Arctic Ocean The government announced its commitment to “completing the Dempster Highway to the Arctic Ocean, linking Canada from sea to sea to sea.” That means extending the highway from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk in the Northwest Territories.

Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail 22. The government really, really wants you to take up a trade The government renewed its commitment to the Canada Job Grant, which has raised the ire of provinces who say it could download costs and trump existing job training programs. But the job grant was one of a series of employment measures in the speech, which said “there are too many people without jobs and too many jobs without people.”

Larry MacDougal/CP 23. Oops, never mind - your flight can still be oversold, for now Industry Minister James Moore had suggested the government is eyeing new rules regulating whether an airline can overbook a flight, and turn away passengers if too many show up. But the Throne Speech made no mention of the changes.

Kacper Pempel/Reuters 24. Government currently has a crazy e-mail system Apparently, in a bid to make government more efficient, Canada will consolidate its 63 different e-mail systems into one. That was one pledge in a section outlining moves to reduce “the size and cost of government.”

Deborah Baic/The Globe and Mail 25. You may soon legally be able to bring booze and beer between provinces The Throne Speech announced a plan to amend the Importation of Intoxicating Liquors Act so that beer and spirits can be carried across provincial boundaries “for their own use.” Last year, the Tories repealed a law that banned people from bringing wine across provincial borders, but some provinces have been slow to adapt to the change – suggesting federal changes to beer and liquor rules may not be enough. Earlier this year, B.C. premier Christy Clark personally carted B.C. wine to a premiers’ meeting in Ontario in a bid to break down interprovincial trade barriers.