GTA Ridings(to)Watch - Liveblogging the opening round of the battle for Ajax Pickering

The release linked to a meticulously cropped video clip of Alexander -- anwho may be the only electoral hopeful in the country who could make Michael Ignatieff look folksy -- making the somewhat startling claim that poverty -- at least by World Bank standards -- had been "eliminated" in Canada. While undoubtedly technically accurate, the line went over about as well as you'd expect with the audience, particularly an unidentified woman who responded to his challenge for anyone living on less than $2 a day to "stand up" with a lengthy, angry diatribe seemingly directed right at him. 

But as Alexander campaign volunteer Kim Dowds was only too happy to point out -- via twitter, of course, and with an impressively fast response time of less than an hour after the LPC release went out -- the video was carefully trimmed so as to omit the woman's subsequent assertion that she had gone to Holland's office and had been "laughed at" and told that there was nothing they could do to help her out. Watch the entire exchange here, starting at the 01:30:00 mark. 

Meanwhile, the Liberal war-room was also busily sowing seeds of gun registry-related dissent with a second Ajax-Pickering-centric press release listing third party groups that have sprung up to oppose their incumbent, particularly TurfMHolland.com.

The URL says it all, really, although it's worth noting that it explicitly recommends that those opposed to Holland's anti-registry campaign offer their support, financial and otherwise, to his Conservative opponent, who it describes as "a great Canadian with time spent in the service of his country," as well as "solid political chops and the right stuff to take Mark Holland to the woodshed." (Interestingly, it also suggests that those who donate money to Alexander as a result of its endorsement do so in multiples of $39.10 for tracking purposes.)