When Harper became the leader of the CPC in 2004, the organization had only just come into existence, through a merger between an establishment Tory party and a populist upstart.

By afternoon of the day following he was deep in the bolso/n and a day later he was entering the range country and the broken land that entabled the desert mountains to the north.

/he stared hard at me and for the first time noticed my hair. We both remained staring at one another for a few seconds. Then clasping both his ham-sized hands to his face, the man wheeled round and staggered back into the cell. “They′ve sent ma a bloody poofta!” he howled. “A bloody poofta!” My companions stared at me in wonderment at the reaction my few words had produced.

Bradley O'Leary, a devout Republican, and Victor Kamber, a staunch Democrat, are publishers of the Washington-based political dope sheet called the O'Leary/Kamber Report.