Today's essential political reads:

The "Welcome to the Cheque Republic" buttons were popular at last weekend's Parliamentary Press Gallery Dinner. 

And now there's a website. 

Today, the Liberals launched www.chequerepublic.ca. It seems the oversized novelty cheque story has had an entirely unanticipated stimulus effect -- making the Liberals get all artsy-crafty. 

What a curious omission.

Yesterday, CBC contacted the office of Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt to ask about the lobbyist who helped organize a fundraiser on her behalf on Sept. 24.

Michael B. McSweeney is vice-president of the Cement Association of Canada. 

Both he and the association are registered with the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada. And a search of the registry shows that on Sept. 24, the Cement Association reported having lobbied Raitt directly. 

(Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

Having blogged earlier about the merits of watching the House of Commons live, or at least watching the videotape later, I must confess that sometimes Hansard can be better than the real thing.

The official transcribers of the proceedings sit in the middle of the room, and hear things that aren't that clear on the audio and video recording.

A case in point:

Yesterday, an MP Twitter'ed that Government House Leader Jay Hill said a naughty word in the House at around 1530.

The ultimate record of who votes yay and nay on every House of Commons Bill and Motion is contained in the official Hansard lists.

But sometimes, it's interesting to attend in person, or at least watch the videotape, for a sense of the mood and body language as a House vote unfolds.

 Louise Elliott, CBC News.

 

The bright minds at 3M may be on to something -- something that MPs and journalists on the Hill could really use.

 

In the mail this week I received my very own sample "privacy filter." It's a piece of transparent grey plastic from the famous makers of Post-It notes and just about anything sticky.

 

Once peeled, said plastic will adhere to any Blackberry screen (after you haul out the scissors and cut it to size - something I haven't yet mustered the energy to do.)

 

The pitch? The plastic contains microscopic Venetian blinds built right in, so that the person sitting next to you on the Parliamentary bus, on the Prime Minister's plane or even your seat-mate in Question Period can't read the treatise you are frantically banging out with your thumbs.

Running communications for a political party is a trying task at the best of times.

Even more so when you're competing with...yourself.

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson held his fourth media event on the government's proposed white-collar crime law today in Ottawa. 

Again, he was unable to flesh out many of the details because the legislation still hasn't been tabled. That will happen tomorrow. 

But Nicholson did release a few details, including a two-year mandatory jail term for fraud over $1 million.

Just as he did at last month's "announcement on white-collar crime legislation," Nicholson surrounded himself with what he called "victims of fraud."  One of the women present at today's announcement is a member of the Earl Jones Organizing Committee. 

Kady O'Malley, CBC News

8:36:32 AM Greetings, fans of slightly time-delayed semi-livebloggish reporting! As noted yesterday, at the moment, I'm not yet able to post just-this-side-of-realtime dispatches from the parliamentary front, but the girl who sat through a seven-hour filibuster over the in-and-out affair isn't going to let a niggling detail like that stop her from covering what could turn out to be a surprisingly lively Ethics meeting. Yes, I'm back at Ethics -- oh, how I've missed it -- and on the agenda today is an appearance by the commissioner herself, Mary Dawson (last seen -- or at least liveblogged -- before the finale Oliphant policy forum over at the University of Ottawa.

This morning, she'll be discussing her annual report on the Code of Conduct for Public Office Holders, which I confess to not actually having re-read before scrambling my way here to the Hill this morning, so the contents will be just as much of a surprise to me as to any committee members who failed to do their homework last night.

Second, you have to make sure you can't be accused of doing the same thing.

Kady O'Malley, CBC News.

Greetings from the CBC Hill bureau newbie!

Okay, so the original plan was to have me lay comparatively low for the first week, since the new blog won't be up and running until next Monday, but due to my visible wilting from the enforced temporary withdrawal from my beloved political interwebs, the Powers That Be have agreed to let me to file the occasional dispatch to Political Bytes.

Due to boring technical limitations, there won't be any liveblogging until I'm happily ensconced in my new corner of the universe, but until then, I'll do my best to keep y'all posted on the latest happenings in and around the parliamentary precinct. (Hey, it was either that, or come up with increasingly sneaky ways to get around that capricious 140 character limit over on Twitter.)

Oh, and feel free to drop me a line at my new address: kady.omalley@cbc.ca.

What do you know? Denis Coderre is back in the House of Commons.

You may remember that little bit of trouble he stirred up when he quit his job as the Liberal Quebec lieutenant and then proceeded to diss his leader for running things "out of Toronto."

Well, after laying low for a couple of weeks...he's back.

The giant novelty cheque story appears to have inspired the the Liberal party's artsy side.

Today at a news conference, Liberal MPs David McGuinty and Marcel Proulx announced the party is launching 47 complaints with Canada's ethics commissioner, saying that they've found 181 examples where Conservative MPs have taken credit for taxpayer-funded Government of Canada funding announcements through the use of "personalized partisan cheques" since 2007.

Why 47 complaints? One for each Tory MP the Liberals say handed out the cheques.

Today's news conference also featured a crafty multi-media presentation, which included an image of Prime Minister Stephen Harper made up of a collage of those oversized cheques.

Seek and you shall find.

Or perhaps, better yet, Google and you'll come up with something.

That big cheque from Gerald Keddy's office featuring a Conservative logo got us to wondering if there perhaps other big cheques floating around out there that may promote partisan interests rather than pure government spending.

Particularly, given that the Prime Minister's Office has acknowledged that Keddy made a mistake using a Conservative party logo.

Other MPs use the logo, or Conservative slogans, or even their own names.

Everyone likes a big cheque when it comes to handing over money. It makes a dandy prop for MPs to stand beside and take credit for.

But there are rules about such things. For instance, if the money comes from the federal government, it should state so clearly.

That's not quite what Nova Scotia MP Gerald Keddy did.

They're not just the hottest tickets in town. They rank among the hottest tickets on the planet -- seats for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, especially the opening and closing ceremonies.

Fifteen hundred of these tickets are set aside for MPs, senators and anyone else the government wants to give them to. Ordinary Canadians -- except for the fortunate people who were able to buy them in an on-line lottery -- are out of luck because the available tickets are now sold out.

So, there's this phone, see? And this phone just so happened to belong to a CBC producer in Ottawa. And last night, just as it was born to do, it RANG!

On the other end was an actual non-recorded human voice -- male -- conducting a poll on behalf of her local Conservative MP, Pierre Poilievre.

Curious, she participated in the poll, which was clearly trying to gauge her interest in an election now and who she'd support -- while ever-so-subtly reminding her about the home renovation tax credit and federal infrastructure money to build the Strandherd Bridge in her riding, brought to her by the Harper government.

Republican Senator John McCain once called the sport of Ultimate Fighting "human cockfighting."

But Canada's Heritage Minister, James Moore, is a fan.

So, remember all those rampant rumours about floor-crossing? My, was that just yesterday?

As it turns out, the rumours were, in fact, just rumours.

In an unusual move, the Toronto Star revealed today where the rumours started.

There is nothing like waking up in the morning to see your face in the papers. It must have been a rude awakening for Ruby Dhalla today.

The Toronto Star reported that a senior Conservative source says at least three Liberals have contemplated defections.

And one of the names raised in the story: none other than Ruby Dhalla. In an attempt to put a stop to the story Dhalla tweeted this statement this morning: "The rumour mill is in overdrive again. The joys of being a women in politics !"

Three things about yesterday's LPCQ meeting in Quebec City that aren't exactly newsworthy but still interesting:

- Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff delivered a speech more than 30 minutes long and entirely in French without the use of teleprompters.

- Ignatieff was the most passionate and generated the most applause when he said his French isn't perfect but that's part of who he is.

- In reference to Prime Minister Stephen Harper's surprise musical performance at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa on Saturday night, Ignatieff said he envied Harper's piano-playing abilities but felt the prime minister carried a tune just as well as he does.

More than 1,000 members of the federal Liberal party were meeting in Quebec City on Sunday, with one glaring exception. The party's former Quebec lieutenant Denis Coderre did not attend.

On Monday (October 5), the House of Commons Justice Committee will begin a review of a very thorny burr under the saddle of free speech proponents.

Radio-Canada has released a short excerpt of Denis Coderre's much-anticipated and much-discussed appearance on Tout le monde en parle. The full segment will air this Sunday night.

It seems (based on this very short clip) consistent with his earlier Facebook status update -- affable, good-humoured, and still loyal to the Liberal Party.

Outrage! Hedy Fry's mad as H-E-double-hockey-sticks that some items in the Hudson's Bay Co. clothing line for Canada's Olympians have a 'C' on them with a Maple Leaf, and, darnit, so does the Conservative Party's logo! In the Commons today, she accused the Conservatives of "trying to politicize" the Vancouver-Whistler Games.

Politicizing the Olympics. Imagine! ('cause that's never happened before, no siree...)

Gary Lunn, the minister for amateur sport, told the House the government was "not involved in any way, shape or form" with the HBC design.

Our colleagues at Radio-Canada have confirmed that the spirit of compromise is alive and well in the Liberal Party's Quebec nomination drama.

Nathalie Le Prohon was the star candidate Denis Coderre had picked to run for the Liberals in Outremont.

She got bounced when former cabinet minister Martin Cauchon decided after a long deliberation to try for a political comeback in his old seat -- and raised a stink about his party not making space for him in the riding he once held.

Le Prohon has now confirmed she's interested in the nomination in another winnable Montreal-area seat -- Jeanne Le Ber. She hesitated for several days, apparently out of concern for the conflict her candidacy could fuel in the aftermath of Coderre's resignation.

From Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff's remarks today in the House of Commons on his party's tabling of a no-confidence motion:

"Mr. Speaker, I rise in this House today to announce formally that the official opposition has lost confidence in the government. This is a serious step and we owe an explanation both to this House and to the Canadian people of our grounds for doing so.

“The Conservatives have given Canada a government whose only ambition is its own survival, and treats adversaries as enemies. They’ve set low standards for Canada, and failed to meet them.”

The Liberals posted an advance copy of his full speech on their website here.

Could it be a sign of a truce?

Denis Coderre, the recently resigned Quebec lieutenant to Michael Ignatieff, has posted a Facebook status update that could be viewed as an olive branch.

Or at very least, a sign someone from the Liberal leader's office has told him to start acting nice.

"For every action, there are consequences. I'm very clear about that. Mr. Coderre is very clear about that." -- Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff, ahead of today's no-confidence vote and his former Quebec lieutenant's scheduled weekend appearance on Radio-Canada's Tout Le Monde En Parle.