The Young and the Liberal

Apparently, being a star candidate doesn't guarantee you a star campaign manager if you're a federal Liberal. Colin Topham, who until recently was a full-time student at University of Victoria (surely graduating with a bachelor degree in election-fighting) will be running Shirley Chan's campaign in Vancouver East. As you may remember, Ms. Chan, a member of Prime Minister Paul Martin's B.C. dream team and the former chief of staff to Vancouver mayor and future premier Mike Harcourt, was appointed to run in that riding earlier this month. In addition to being a former student, Mr. Topham was also a Young Liberal campus club president and briefly served as the party's provincial youth director. A Liberal source says Mr. Topham, who has also worked with professional party schmoozer Keyvan Shojania at the Windsor Law Group, was looking for a summer job when he was asked to help Ms. Chan out.