Baird, Duffy, Campaign For PCs Despite PM's Warning

Two of the Tories' biggest names head to a battleground riding in Ottawa just days after their boss told them to keep it on the down-low.

Despite Prime Minister Stephen Harper's order for federal Tories to not figure too heavily in the Ontario provincial election, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird and Senator Mike Duffy will be headlining a Progressive Conservative event in the battleground district of Ottawa-West Nepean today. That district, now held by Liberal MPP and former Ottawa mayor Bob Chiarelli, has been targeted by the PCs, as they're running former Ottawa Citizen columnist Randall Denley in one of the province's more intriguing electoral battles. The district is also Baird's federal riding. The PM has made it clear he doesn't want his caucus to “become the story” in provincial matters, so we are doing our due dilligence to make sure that, well, they become the story. (Not that there's necessarily anything wrong about federal politicians campaigning for their provincial counterparts, just like how there's nothing wrong with veteran broadcasters retiring to take a plum, all-expenses-paid job in the Upper Chamber requiring little to no work beyond partisan sniping.) Duffy says his appearance today is a “one-off,” but Baird apparently couldn't care less about Harper's edict, as he's already lent his support to a number of PC events, and shows no sign of letting up now.