1. Dr. Tom is the latest to jump on the “death of Conservatism”/”Right wing uprising” train, in this Globe op-ed. While there might be a fundraising backlash, I wouldn’t expect any of this to hurt Harper at the polls. According to this poll (page 35), only 1% of Conservative voters are less likely to vote Tory because of the budget.

And having a few right wingers go on rants that Harper “isn’t conservative enough” may not be a bad thing for the guy…

2. Speaking of fundraising, the latest numbers are out. While there is some mild encouragement in Q4 for the Liberals, it’s abundantly obvious why Harper would love to do away with the public funding of political parties.

3. There’s a lot of buzz over this “fawning” profile of Michael Ignatieff in the New York Times.

4. Tom Clark has won the CTV On the Hill “host race”. Clark is promising that on Mike Duffy Live On The Hill Power Play “anyone who tries to use spin is going to be in for a rather unpleasant surprise”, which is a bold promise to make for a show made up mostly of spin doctor panel segments.

5. Although I didn’t get a chance to see the OYL hijinx first hand, I’d just like to offer a hearty congratulations to David Valentin (and Alex Crombie) who ran, and won, as independents – always a challenging thing to accomplish in youth politics.

6. The latest on the Peter MacKay for NATO secretary general rumours.

7. Four Newfoundland Liberals have broken ranks and will vote against Harper’s budget. It would be hard for Ignatieff to punish his MPs for voting against a budget he has been less than enamoured with himself – especially if he hopes to hang on to the 6 Newfoundland seats the party holds. I’d say he spin it in public as symbolic support for Newfoundland and a sign he won’t be dictactorial…then rap over a few knuckles in private.