THE HARPER INDEX REPORTED IT FIRST:

Yesterday's front page of the National Post, Canada's first rank right wing rag reported on the controversy surrounding the renomination of Conservative MP Rob Anders in Calgary West. They were, however, scooped by the online Harper Index, a website devoted to monitoring the actions of the federal Conservative government. On June 1st the Harper Index published an extensive report on Anders and the Conservative brass' manipulations to have him renominated. The party's executive have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal costs to make sure that "their" candidate wins the nomination in that riding. Anders has a long history of controversy. Before being elected in 1997 he was a paid hack of the Republican Party in the USA. The list of organizations that he supports reads like a who's who of the right in both Canada and the USA. Anders has been the subject of calls for a criminal investigation as to allegations that he falsified federal expenses allowances to pay back a personal loan.

The way that the Conservative Party brass have defended Anders against dissident Conservatives in Calgary West says volumes about how far Harper and Co. have travelled from the Reform Party roots of "open democracy". See this article at the Harper Index for further details.