Blogger makes new plagiarism charge

Liberal blogger Jerad Gallinger (j-rad.ca) digs up another 2003 speech by then-Opposition Leader Stephen Harper that allegedly borrowed lines from another right-wing political leader. Only this time, the right-wing leader was former Ontario premier Mike Harris, and the borrowed lines constitute less than a paragraph.

The Harper speech was a response to the federal budget, hardly a hot-button issue such as supporting the war in Iraq.

Free advice to politicians, part III

Whoops, they did it again. Another B.C. NDP candidate is done in by past behaviour.

Free advice to politicians, part II

Political journalists have long been accused of the "gotcha" - blindsiding a politician with an ambush question to get a sexy story. Whether that's a fair accusation or not, it hardly seems necessary these days: the politician are getting themselves, with a little help from partisan bloggers.

Week 3 of the campaign is just underway and past Internet musings have claimed two more candidates (a second one from the NDP and one from the Tories) and forced another (a Liberal) to defend herself for her onine essays. The Conservative and NDP candidates resigned before the mainstream press even had much of a chance to pounce, so that new candidates could take their place.

Things get a bit more serious now though. With the passing of the candidate nomination filing deadline, the parties are locked in to their current slate of candidates - they can drop out but can't be replaced.

P.S. HE'S BAAAACK: The former Conservative candidate, Chris Reid, has returned to the pologosphere following his exit from the campaign. His first return post puts to rest earlier claims that he quit the race because he didn't want to commit to four years in Ottawa:

This is where political correctness has gotten in this country - a Conservative Party that is affraid to proudly be conservative, and a media that can't be bothered to analyze anything. The media is simply focused on the "gaffe" this caused the campaign, with no analysis of what I actually said. So don't worry liberals, there is no hidden agenda to the Conservative Party, because it has sold it's soul to the MSM, you can freely vote Conservative and still have your ever expanding nanny state!

Free advice for politicians

In the newspaper business it is common practise for editors and reporters to search the archives and the Internet for an unfamiliar newsmaker's name to see what comes up. When we forget to do that (been there, done that) we are sometimes embarassed the next day by our competition.

NDP Leader Jack Layton might be feeling some of that morning-after regret today upon learning that his party's (now former) candidate in West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast posted video depicting his apparent use of illicit drugs on marijuana advocate Marc Emery's site PotTV. That's a habit Google could have revealed to curious party officials in 0.14 seconds.

(Maybe the innovative folks at Google Labs should create a more focused search engine: Google Background Check?)

There's a reason "google" has become a verb and could also be a synonym for "cover your butt." If, for example, the Liberal party had Googled "green shift" they might have avoided an embarassing spat over the name of their green plan and whatever licensing fee they agreed to pay to settle the disupte. (Or maybe not, given they were aware of the conflict enough to try sticking a "the" in front.)

Okay, better example: if your humble bloggist had bothered to google the name "Campaign 2.0," he might have found his clever moniker had already been used several times before, including by the aforementioned competition. So, in the spirit of things, let me say I am embarassed by this lapse of judgment and take full responsibility. I apologize without reservation to my family, colleagues and leader and beg your forgiveness. I'm a human!

MORE FREE ADVICE: As my friend Paul Gorbould noted in a message yesterday about the Conservatives' disappearing Dionbook site, thanks to Google cacheing and the Internet museum site The Wayback Machine, you can't un-publish on the Internet. He should know - he works for the CBC's Digital Archives, which has compiled historical gems from past Canadian election campaigns - and archival footage of the current party leaders - from the CBC's unrivalled library.