@Jane Wells - I checked the IRC logs and I posted the mentions of core/canonical plugins in the wp tavern thread and the most mentions was dec 10 and that is after your post on Canonical Plugin on dec 8. In wp-hackers maillist the discussions took place after your post also. Discussions before that didn't have much in common with the path now taken.
If the name was decided on Nov 14-15 then the phrase "core plugins" should show up somewhere between nov 15 and dec 8. Could question why even put out a poll if the decission was already made.

There are mentions of canonical plugins here and there. No one really talks about it in the way its now presented it is discussed as something that is an addition to core or moving stuff out of core. Also some talk of APIs. Can't really call it discussions at all. Can't really find any discussion other than those I've listed in my wp tavern post.
Canonical plugins mentioned are buddypress and bbpress.
I've found this from july its the first mention of Canonical Plugins. There is no explanation of canonical plugins in the post that announced the poll.
Clearly this issue deserves more discussion, and the concept of how we move toward a system of canonical plugins and/or core “packages” intended for different use cases (CMS, photoblog, portfolio, etc) will be a big topic in the months ahead. 2.9 Features Vote Results
So where can I find the discussions if they are no where to be found on the official list etc?

@Otto - I know. It was late.

WP.org should get Mark J too be the one to post public stuff and discuss. He seems to actually listens. At least his last comment in the Jay gives that impressions. And he was coolheaded in the whole privacy debacle also.