Picture the scene: a room full of grey-haired Conservative supporters. Stephen Harper, on his game, the stump speech seeming to pass his lips without breath or effort.

James Cudmore

Now, picture a dissenter. A lone voice in the crowd, at the back of the room of course, calling out just after Harper finished reminding his partisans of all the debt the government has paid down since the Conservatives took office ($40 billion): "Yah, but what about the other 500?"

No one is precisely sure what the man said, because within about three seconds, the man had been unceremoniously grabbed from behind and propelled out through the convention hall door by a man wearing a Conservative party identification tag.

Within another three seconds, two undercover RCMP officers arrived on the scene — or perhaps they were local police in plainclothes, but either way, that was the last the rally saw or heard from the man.

But what's most curious about the heckler, is that he may not have been heckling at all.

The rumours abound: An old Reformer participating in a grassroots exchange with the Prime Minister? Or, a Green party candidate, intent on embarrassing Harper? Either way, he wasn't heard from again, the political security of Stephen Harper's speech was protected by police.

— James Cudmore