On Thursday a report out of Atlantic Canada placed the blame for diminishing Conservative Party fortunes squarely on the shoulders of Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams' ABC campaign (Anything But Conservatives). Still, area Conservative campaign co-chair Leo Power expressed optimism that incumbent Fabian Manning (Avalon) would retain his seat.

Maybe not. Events might just claim that seat too.

Today we learn Mr. Manning, who in January 2007 had been identified along with among other provincial MHAs as receiving secret and controversial bonus payments, failed to refund the monies to government treasuries. (Repaying secret bonus 'slipped my mind,' N.L. MP Manning says, CBC)

Manning repaid the monies only yesterday.

His excuse for the twenty-one month delay? He forgot.

Manning does admit he was driven-pun intended-to take care of this issue by the knowledge of a soon to be published newspaper article which would call into question certain expense claims he made while still a member of the provincial House of Assembly.

The Telegram was investigating Manning's travel expense claims while serving as a MHA. The report informs us Manning drove 36,200 kilometers during a six month period in 2003, and it appears he claimed some miles before actually putting his foot on the gas pedal.

Manning has an excuse for this, too. Whether Newfoundland and Labradorians believe it will be discovered on October 14.

Caught in the act III - Harper speech found to contain word for word chunks of former Ontario Premier Mike Harris speech

Click to enlarge

An independent researcher has discovered what appears to be yet another example of plagiarism coming out of Stephen Harper's office. This time the apparent text source is non other than the controversial former conservative premier of Ontario, "common sense revolution" Mike Harris. This revelation gives rise to some troubling questions.

Are Harper, Harris, and Howard part of a mysterious cabal of leaders unable to think for themselves? Is there anything behind the rumoured existence of the 3-H Club, a speech and policy for dummies service quite possibly staffed by the SFU Forty-Four, masterminded by the Washington D.C. headquartered PNAC? Is there any truth to the rumour that the 3-H Club has inserted UHF radio-enabled cochlear implants into Stephen Harper's ears so they can whisper speeches and other instructions to him on a 24 by 7 basis? Does U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney personally control Harper's emergency mute button? And can we see very fine control wires attached to Harper's limbs and facial features? How many more examples of the 3-H club in action will be unearthed before October 14?

< Read Harper: Caught in the act II

De-Elect Emerson

Voters don't want Liberal to 'do an Emerson' (John Bermingham, The Province)

The Emerson factor is alive and well in Vancouver-Kingsway. The shadow of Liberal-turned-Tory cabinet minister David Emerson looms over the fight for Vancouver-Kingsway. "It's still coming up frequently," said Michael Watkins, spokesman for the De-Elect Emerson Campaign. "The people who were upset before still are."

"Having Emerson as our representative really means that we had no representative," he said. This time around voters will want to know their X on the ballot actually means something, he said.

In the 2006 election Emerson received 43.5% of the vote; Ian Waddell (NDP) 33.5%; Kanman Wong (Conservative) 18.8%. Not one of them lived in the riding, by the way.

Judging by the progress of the sign wars, it looks like it'll be a tight race between Wendy Yuan and Don Davies. Its my unscientifically arrived at perception that Mr. Davies has far more signs out in total, with signs not only on busy thoroughfares but also dotting the landscape within neighbourhoods.

Less than two weeks to go and so far the most visible indication there is an election under way in Vancouver-Kingsway is the sign war. Or maybe best label it a fierce skirmish up to this point. Lets have a quick look at the primary candidates, beyond their resumes. If you want the official propaganda click through to their individual websites for that. Alphabetically then:

CONSERVATIVE: Sure, they've got signs up for their last-minute expendable candidate, but that's as close as many of us will get to him.

The stand-in candidate from the Conservative Party, Salomon Rayek , has no connection with the riding (he lives in Richmond and is the president of the Delta-East Richmond Conservative riding association) and won't participate in any debates or open public meetings. In other words, he's a Conservative Bubble Candidate or CBC. Oops, not that CBC. In related news:

Conservatives duck debates in run-up to federal election : A long-time political organizer thinks candidates don’t have a responsibility to show up to all-candidates meetings or speak with the media. Bob Ransford, who was the cochair in B.C. for the Conservatives in the 2004 federal election, noted that time and money are limited during campaigns, and candidates must make choices.

Hey Bob, that's a helluva choice - hiding a virtual unknown away from the public he pretends to want to represent. No matter, here in Vancouver-Kingsway we are used to politicians remaining in hiding: David Emerson has been evading constituents ever since February 6, 2006. We know what to do to such people.

LIBERAL: Wendy Yuan is no stranger to the riding, but like the Conservative candidate she doesn't live within it, either. Ms. Yuan famously stepped aside two elections ago to allow Paul Martin's hand-picked candidate to run in the riding. His name? The infamous David Emerson.

I'm not a fan of hand-picked star candidates being plunked down into a riding by the party bureaucracy. Democracy needs to start at home, at the local level. I want to see parties respect democracy at every level otherwise how can they be trusted to respect democracy when things get a little more complicated or difficult?

Earlier this week former prime minister Paul Martin was in the riding doing duty as the keynote speaker at a fund raising luncheon. Noted in the community press, Fiona Hughes, a Vancouver-Kingsway resident and reporter for The Vancouver Courier, wrote yesterday why she's voting for Dion with a Liberal checkmark on her ballot.

GREEN: While I've yet to see a Green Party sign, I've been assured there is indeed a candidate. Readers with long memories will recall that Kevin Potvin, a local independent media publisher and writer, was dumped from the Green slate last year.

Doug Warkentin will take up the party's banner in this contest. I'll be meeting Mr. Warkentin for the first time at a weekend coffee talk event and shall report back any unusual and obvious abnormalities and grooming quirks.

NEW DEMOCRATS: Don Davies of the New Democrats is busy with his campaign (take that Bob Ransford) but one can't help but run into him everywhere. From dance floor to a rain soaked venue to talk about the seismic safety issue in Vancouver schools, Mr. Davies has been active in this community he's lived in for many years.

I first met Don at an event the De-Elect David Emerson campaign put on. Despite lots of loud (but great) music going on, we chatted about politics in the foyer of the hall for far too long. A lawyer, Don is earnest and serious yet approachable. I sense he's filled into his role well since we last spoke.

This race is very clearly between the Liberals and the NDP. I don't have a good read on how badly l'affair Emerson will hurt the Liberals but there must be some impact felt at the doorstep since I continue to hear people in the riding talk about he who shall not be named.

Joke of the day: Emerson says he could have won in Vancouver-Kingsway

Political potpourri for Thursday October 2:

ABC From Sea to Sea

ABC - Tory organizer blames ABC campaign for party's woes - Leo Power, a veteran of federal politics and the Conservative Party of Canada's campaign co-chair for Newfoundland and Labrador, said raising money and recruiting volunteers has proved difficult. "We're obviously challenged for resources, both people — it's difficult to recruit volunteers under this current scenario of an ABC [Progressive Conservative Premier Danny William's Anything But Conservative] campaign — and fundraising is challenging as well," he said. Power said his party's best hope of winning a seat is in the riding of Avalon with incumbent candidate Fabian Manning. (CBC)

[Editor: Manning's voting record. In related news, Premier Williams said he's delighted with policy proposal commitments made to him by both the Liberal and New Democratic parties.]

ANDREW COYNE - Green? Who, me? Harper has a green plan too, though he'd rather not talk very much about it right now - In sum, the Conservative plan is just as costly (per tonne of emissions reduced) as the Liberals', twice as complicated (emissions trading markets are, as Europe has learned, fiendishly difficult to design: just the task of ensuring credits are based on "real, incremental, verifiable" reductions would take several pages to explain), and probably half as effective. (Not that there's anything wrong with cap-and-trade. But to get anywhere near our targets, we're probably going to need both a carbon tax and cap-and-trade, as indeed the Liberals propose.) (Macleans)

[Editor: David Suzuki explains why he thinks a carbon tax is the way to go (CBC)]

PAUL WELLS - Foreign policy? What foreign policy? - On the most fundamental matters of statecraft, Harper simply isn't serious. In the shuffle that followed, Peter MacKay replaced O'Connor, only to be replaced at Foreign Affairs by Maxime Bernier, who in turn was replaced by David Emerson after Bernier ran into problems with his briefs. The highlight of Bernier's tenure as Canada's emissary to the world — I will restrict myself here to the professional highlight — was a trip to Afghanistan with boxes of Jos. Louis snack cakes for the troops. (Macleans)