Doug Finley was sometimes dubbed as Stephen Harper's pit bull

Finley — the husband of Human Resources Minister Diane Finley — was appointed to the Senate in 2009, by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, after leading the Conservatives to two straight election victories as the party's director of political operations.

Finley was dubbed Harper's pit bull and was revered by many people across the political spectrum. He was a personable individual and brilliant political tactician. Yet, he didn't hold back — he wasn't afraid to say what was on his mind. The first time I met him, in 2010, he threw-in some expletives when describing one of his own Conservative candidates who lost an election because of "laziness."

He was also a somewhat controversial and polarizing figure. His curtness and aggressiveness sometimes rubbed people the wrong way. Finley was one of the Tory insiders who plead guilty to a 2006 campaign financing scheme, known as the in-and-out affair, where the party was alleged to

BC leaders debate

The polling numbers are pretty incredible.

On Friday, Ipsos Reid released their latest report on the B.C. election just days before voters go the polls on May 14. As it stands now, Adrian Dix's NDP are pegged at 43 per cent while the Christy Clark Liberals are projected to earn 37 per cent support.

[ More B.C. election coverage: Elections B.C. now allowing prescription bottles for voter ID ]

It's an amazing feat for Clark and her party who just three weeks ago were written off for dead.

So, how did it happen?

Well, the fact that the party has a hardworking, energetic leader with charisma and a broadcast background is certainly helpful. Clark has the ability to excite and motivate people in a way that Dix can't.

The Liberals also got some help from the Conservatives who kept shooting themselves in the foot. The B.C Tories have lost four candidates since the beginning of the campaign, three candidates didn't register in time to run officially under the Conservative banner, and John Cummins

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney.The Obama administration should be sending Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney a big thank you card.

In July 2012, Kenney announced that his government would be suspending its Immigrant Investor Program (IIP) because of a huge backlog of cases.

The popular program — which offered visas to affluent foreign nationals who invested $800,000 into Canadian government coffers for a period of 5 years — provided an annual economic contribution of a $2 billion to the Canadian economy.

Despite the economic gain, it doesn't look like Kenney is in any rush to lift the moratorium.

While the government's Economic Action Plan 2013 says that they will "look at" creating a new pilot IIP, a spokesperson for Kenney says they have no immediate plans to relaunch.

"No plans currently to re-open it," Ana Curic told Yahoo! Canada News.

"We are currently reviewing options to revamp the program. The Minister has been clear that the current program is underselling Canada."

[ Related: Immigration expert warns that

A lot of us have said that civility in politics has gone in the toilet.

Well, on Thursday, in Nova Scotia it sort of did.

According to reports, NDP MLA Percy Paris grabbed and shoved Liberal MLA Keith Colwell against a wall outside a bathroom at that province's legislature.

According to the Chronicle Herald, Halifax police confirmed Paris went to police headquarters on his own at 7:45 p.m. where he was arrested and "charged with assault and uttering threats." He was released and is expected to appear in provincial court on June 18.

Reports had suggested that altercation was a result of comments Colwell made about the black community in his riding. On Friday, however, Paris said that it was an accumulation of things.

"I regret that I lost my cool for a few seconds," he told the Herald while calling the incident an "animated exchange."

"I’m hearing some things being said directly about the African-Nova Scotian community which I don’t agree with that strike a very sensitive chord within me, and

Senator Mike DuffyI'm not the smartest person in the world. I mean I'm okay: I have a university degree, I'm well-read and Mrs. Wilson, my grade 7 teacher, once told me that I was 'too smart for my own good' — whatever that means.

But I'm no senator. I'm not one of the learned few, tapped by our nation's supreme leaders to serve in Canada's upper chamber.

So you'll have to excuse me for not understanding the confusion with regard to the term "primary residence."

According to Senate rules, "senators, whose primary residence is located more than 100 kilometres from the [National Capital Region], are entitled to a reimbursement of travel expenses, and a reimbursement of living expenses, while in the NCR for Senate business."

On Thursday, a series of Senate reports — developed after a Deloitte audit — found that Senators Mac Harb and Patrick Brazeau 'erroneously' claimed living allowances and expenses that they weren't entitled to.

Both senators, it appears, spent most of their time in Ottawa. Brazeau only

Christy Clark on the night she was elected party leader in February 2011It appears that even before next week's election in B.C., the knives are out for Premier Christy Clark.

According to a Global News exclusive, there's a movement afoot within the Liberal Party to remove Clark from the proverbial leader's office immediately after polls close on Tuesday.

It’s called the 801 movement, symbolizing 8:01 p.m., one minute after the election and precisely when the movement plans to begin the process of putting pressure on Clark to step aside.

The movement — made up of party members and business leaders — has already created their own buttons.

Even though Christy Clark won the Liberal leadership two years ago, support for her within the so-called free enterprise coalition has been lukewarm.

Not suprisingly, Liberal candidates are downplaying the story.

[ Related: B.C. Premier Christy Clark may have spoiled her own ballot ]

MLA Rich Coleman called it a "load of crap."

"I think it's cheap, childish, amateurish, on the part of anybody who would say it, but there's lot of

B.C. Premier Christy Clark casts her ballot on Wednesday.

Traditionally it's a good photo-op for the candidate and it provides compelling images for newspapers and television outlets alike.

Unfortunately, for B.C. Premier Christy Clark, she sort of spoiled the moment and maybe even her ballot.

As explained by CKNW News, the premier voted at the advance polls on Wednesday, in her home riding of Vancouver-Fairview.

She’s running in Vancouver-Point Grey, but she actually lives in Vancouver-Fairview, so she has to vote for the Liberal candidate there, Margaret MacDiarmid.

When she tried to hand her handwritten written ballot to the polling clerk, she was asked why she'd put her own name on it.

"Well, you know what I need to do is… I need to put, um, I need to put Margaret MacDiarmid on there too."

Clark then added MacDiarmid’s name.

A spokesperson for Elections BC said that for any ballot to be valid, the voter's intent must be clear.

[ Related: Elections BC now allowing prescription bottles

Economic action planThe narrative from the Harper Conservatives, for at least the last decade, has been that they are the party who would be the best stewards of our economy.

That image — that brand — has taken some significant hits over the past several weeks.

The Auditor General's report released last week slammed the government for losing track of $3.1 billion that was supposed to be earmarked for national security. While no one has suggested any misconduct, no one in government can explain exactly where the money went.

On Tuesday, as explained by The Canadian Press, Prime Minister Harper embarrassed his government in the House by citing pride in defending the $113 million for those darn economic action plan commercials that seem to do nothing but tout the government's economic record.

[ Related: How much did the Harper government spend on their Super Bowl ads? ]

And on Wednesday, the Toronto Star reported that "90 per cent of the $2.4 billion paid out for management consulting in the past decade comes with