• A minority government has been in office two and a half years.
• Claims that in spite of truculent Opposition, the government has great achievements to its credit.
• Government insiders believe the Oppostion leader is losing voter appeal.
• Overhanging the government are allegations of unethical practices.
• There are signs the economy is weakening, leading some to believe the government's electoral prospects may slip.
• The Prime Minister says the Opposition is determined to defeat him anyway when the House returns from its summer recess.

In the days leading up to last night's town hall in Oakville, Ont., the host, Liberal MP Garth Turner, billed it as the largest non-partisan meeting in history. Hype, yes. Even so, more than 1,300 people showed up at the St. Volodymyr Cultural Centre to hear the man whom Turner describes in his blog as "willow" — Liberal leader Stéphane Dion.

Many of attendees were, in fact, non-partisan. Some said they wanted to hear for themselves how well Dion speaks English. Those who have been receiving Conservative flyers about the Green Shift said they wanted to hear Dion explain it.

And just like any election-style event, many others came with personal grievances. How would a Liberal government improve EI benefits for cancer survivors? Would Liberals reverse the new copyright law? And how does Dion propose helping the ailing auto sector?

Liberal leader Stéphane Dion picked up his walk to a full-scale run as he approached the venue for his first Ottawa news conference in a while this afternoon. Once inside, he kept up the rapid-fire pace and it was pretty clear he was angling for a fight.

In a very short opening statement, he said he had been on vacation. "I cut bait, I fished, I cut the fish, I won the tournament, we cooked it, we ate it, it was delicious.

"It had the taste of victory," he went on. "And all of this because we struck at the right time."

Politicians (and journalists) often use sports analogies to make their political points. But fishing — other than the standard jibe about fish or cut bait — is new to the lexicon.

Dion, though, wanted to make it clear he was not the one with the hook in his mouth. He said he was considering stopping his strategic voting (ie. supporting Conservative legislation) and possibly triggering an election this fall.

His position, he said, had always been to respect the wishes of Canadians when it came to an election and he now believes Canadians are ready for one.

You know Mario, don't you?

Mario Lemieux called.

No, not that Mario Lemieux. Not the "saviour of the Pittsburgh Penguins." But Mario Lemieux. You know, from the Privy Council Office here in Ottawa. That one.

Mario called Friday because he'd heard about some story on the CBC about sensitive government documents left in the middle of an Ottawa street.

Mario couldn't believe the story, he said, and he thought he'd call and ask about it.

Now, Mario is not that well known at the CBC. I don't think he's ever called here before.

But when Mario called just after nine this morning, it was like everyone ought to know him.

This morning, the prime minister was giving a speech in Cupids, Newfoundland.

He was speaking about the shared history of Newfoundland and Canada when he said this: "So when Newfoundland finally joined together with us in Confederation in 1867, we all say it was like a family reunion..."

Now, we at Political Bytes are sure that Stephen Harper knows that Newfoundland joined Confederation in 1949.

Locked in a military showdown with Russia, West-leaning Georgia’s political leadership is continuing to appeal for humanitarian aid, as well as military assistance, from NATO.

Yesterday Canada pledged $1 million dollars in aid to the people affected by the fighting on Russia's doorstep and today U.S. President George W. Bush announced the U.S. military would start delivering humanitarian aid to Georgia.

(Back in April, Bush had been a keen backer of Georgia and Ukraine joining the NATO alliance but was forced to back down when Russia complained loudly and other members of the alliance decided to put off any decision.)

The U.S. president also dispatched Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Paris and the Georgian capital Tbilisi in search of a diplomatic solution.

But what U.S officials aren’t so keen on talking about, at least publicly, is the military aid they’re also contributing to Georgia.

A senior Conservative official today didn't hold out much hope for his party in the the three byelections on Sept. 8.

Conservative candidates in the Guelph, Ont., riding as well as the two in Quebec — Westmount-Ville-Marie and Saint-Lambert — may be disappointed to learn that the party brass feels all three are "not terribly winnable seats for us."

Pointing out that the margins in the last federal election in 2006 were decidedly in favour of the incumbents, the official did go on to say, though, that it will be interesting to see if the levels of support shift. The Liberals hold Guelph and Westmount while the Bloc Quebecois holds Saint Lambert, a south shore riding across the river from Montreal.

Given the past results, it should probably not be a surprise that the Conservatives are lowering expectations in advance of the byelections, which will be held just the week before Parliament reconvenes.

Still what message does that send to the party's troops on the ground?

When Robert Morrissey announced last week that he was withdrawing as the Liberal candidate in the PEI riding of Egmont, the Conservatives were burning up the telephone wires spinning to journalists that his decision had everything to do with Atlantic Canada’s distaste for Stéphane Dion’s carbon tax proposals, the Liberal's so-called Green Shift.

Morrissey was an Ignatieff supporter during the Liberal leadership, so it was a short leap for any conspiracy-minded observer to imagine that he intended to send a message to Dion.

And some media dutifully reported it.

But Political Bytes sought out some Island Liberals for their side of the story and heard some compelling arguments that Morrissey’s decision was motivated by other considerations.

Doug Finley, the Conservative party's campaign director, is used to making the political trains run on time. But when he showed up at the Commons ethics committee hearings this morning, he was two days early — and there was no chance, as it turned out, of getting this one to speed up.

Finley was a summoned witness by the committee, which is examining the Conservatives' election financing scheme, the one that Elections Canada claims broke the law. He was scheduled to appear later in the week but had informed the clerk that he would only be available on Monday.

So he showed up, ready to have his say. But that was not what the opposition majority nor committee chair, Liberal MP Paul Szabo had in mind.

For some months now, it’s been clear that the Conservatives, led by Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney, are working diligently to increase their appeal to ethnic voters.

Take the 2006 apology for the Chinese head tax, for example. Or even last weekend’s attempt — however poorly received — to apologize to the Sikh community for the Komagata Maru incident in 1914, when a ship full of displaced migrants was turned away from Vancouver.

Kenney’s website is full of events and meetings with individuals and groups from a variety of different backgrounds and religions. But the Conservatives are not forgetting their more traditional Christian base either.

Transport Canada hosted a "green" announcement for journalists today about the marketing of low-speed electric trucks.

But in trumpeting the zero-emissions technology, it might have slipped up a bit on the enviromentally-friendly front.

The news release distributed at the event fits on one double-sided page. But journalists signing in before the event were given media kits, in this case glossy printed Transport Canada folders holding both a French and an English copy of the release. And nothing more.

All reporters needed was the one page release in the language of their choice. So why waste all that extra paper?

Just asking. Of course, we will make sure the folder and the extra copy of the release make it into our blue box.

Earlier this spring, the tobacco growers of Norfolk County in southwestern Ontario were led to believe that the federal Conservative government had no money left to spend on buying out tobacco quotas from struggling farmers.

As recently as June 10, the Conservative MPs and ministers at today's Tobacco Exit Strategy announcement in Delhi stood up and voted against a motion from the House of Commons Agriculture and Agri-Food Committee calling on the Harper government to help tobacco growers ease out of their troubled business through just such an exit strategy.

Now maybe the Tories didn't like every last detail of the precise strategy the opposition majority on the committee put forward. And maybe it was yesterday's cash settlement with big tobacco companies that gave the government coffers the new funds to be able to change their mind so suddenly.

But it was also smart politics for the Harper government to turn tobacco's way.