My colleague John Ivison has all the intrigue involved with the calling of byelections but the word on the Hill right now is that byelections in Guelph, Westmount, and Saint Lambert will be called on July 20 with a vote set for Monday, September 8. Liberals are the incumbents and favourites in Guelph and Westmount; the Bloc Quebecois holds Saint Lambert and it is theirs to lose.

If you're from the States or somewhere else, though, watch of one of Rob Corddry's finest moments] while he was the exec director of the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association -- opened up his second day in the Langevin Block as Prime Minister Stephen Harper's new Director of Communications by meeting with the chiefs of the big news bureaus here in Ottawa -- Canwest, Canadian Press, the Globe, CBC, CTV and so on. Teneycke is succeeding Sandra Buckler, a communications director who placed less value on winning the hearts and minds of the Parliamentary Press Gallery and more on serving the strategic goals of her boss.... Whatever your view, there's no getting around the fact that the Brodie-Buckler version of the PMO (former Chief of Staff Ian Brodie resigned about the same time) finished up with their boss at almost exactly the same point in the polls as he did when he arrived in January, 2006.... So far as we've been able to determine, the mission for Giorno will be largely a political one: Get Harper ready for the next election, which will certainly come by the fall of 2009 and, in my view, has a slim chance of happening this fall.

Elections Canada announced today that the five registered political parties who met the criteria for public funding laid down by Jean Chrétien are about to get their quarterly cheques:

Bloc Québécois $758,350.39
Conservative Party of Canada $2,623,890.17
Green Party of Canada $324,231.20
Liberal Party of Canada $2,187,074.37
New Democratic Party $1,264,370.74

Technorati Tags: election finances

I have to read things like this for a living but do the folks who write these on behalf of their vainglorious masters really believe they're passing on important information with opening lines like this? DISRAELI, QUEBEC--(Marketwire - June 30, 2008) - The Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada, Secretary of State for Agriculture and MP for Megantic-L'Erable, the Honourable Christian Paradis, on behalf of the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, the Honourable Lawrence Cannon, and the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Minister responsible for the Chaudiere-Appalaches Region and MNA for Frontenac, Laurent Lessard, on behalf of the Deputy Premier and Minister of Municipal Affairs and Regions, Nathalie Normandeau, announced today . .