The Liberals have disowned their Abbotsford candidate over allegations he attempted to bribe the NDP candidate to drop out. Considering how safe Abbotsford is for the Tories, it boggles my mind why Dave Oliver would even bother.

On the bright side for the Liberals, they’ve gone on the attack against the Tory platform which has finally been costed. For the record, I think Harper is smart enough not to go into deficit, but I do think his “fiscal imbalance” pledge is going to cause him a lot of grief over the next few years. The amount of money the Premiers want, coupled with his tax cuts, is going to force him to cut back on other promises, or leave the provinces (and Quebec especially) upset.

UPDATE: Thinking it over, this whole Abbotsford thing is rather troubling. The NDP candidate makes an unsubstantiated far fetched accusation and, poof, everyone believes him? With Zeisman, the guy is actually going to trial – here it’s just “he said, he said”. Hopefully this story won’t get too much media play, because it really seems like a non-issue to me.