Stephen Harper settled back in Ottawa following his election to lead the newly formed Conservative Party, which united the old Progressive Conservatives with the Old Canadian Alliance.
While the merger had a moderating effect on how people viewed right leaning representation in Parliament, the rednecks of the old Canadian Alliance seemed to have expired with the Canadian Alliance, for example, the terms 'neocon' and 'idealogue' still remained with the new party.
But if labels were a bit of a nasty hinderance to Conservative Party momentum, the Liberals under Paul Martin had something even bigger to worry about: the sponsorship scandal.
