[goldstategop]

I marvel at the Liberals' hypocrisy in claiming their purchase of Belinda Stronach had nothing to do with politics. It is politics and at least Harper's not pretending Emerson joined his Cabinet out of high minded motives like Martin did.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[Heatseeker]

My initial reaction to this was mildly negative, but now I'm beginning to see it was really smart on Harper's part. That riding (Vancouver Kingsway) doesn't look winnable for any other Tory (Kanman Wong got less than 19% of the vote last month; 2004 results were about the same) while the NDP was 5K votes back in both elections.

Thus I think Harper and his team figured there was nothing to lose here, and at a minimum they have taken a guy out of the Liberal leadership competition that, as party leader, might hurt them in BC at the next election.