Mark Warner, who had won the right to lead what would most likely have been a futile Conservative charge against Bog Rae in the riding of Toronto Centre, has been told that his services are no longer required. In Guelph, Brent Barr won the CPC nomination but head office told him he can't have it ...   more »

And, if that's not bad enough, there were a lot more Canadians in the three month period ending Sept. 30 willing to cut a cheque to Jack Layton's party than to Stephane Dion's party. Elections Canada released third quarter party financial return transactions a few minutes ago. I've got lots of number-crunching to go through but here's the basic scorecard: When it comes to contributions from individuals, it's probably about time to talk about the Big Blue Machine: The Conservative Party of Canada found more than 32,800 people who would write a cheque to Stephen Harper's team and the party collected a total of $3.15-million from those individuals.

I got three questions in the q-and-a that followed and here they are: Akin: Your party said during the election campaign you would never tax income trusts.... So as soon as we get into the new year and people get their T4's and so on they can go ahead and get more money than they would have had, assuming our notice of Ways and Means Motion passes in the House of Commons.