So, to say the least Stockwell Day was an easy target for abuse. I therefore decided to try and play an elaborate trick on him. I emailed Stockwell Day, professing to be a fan of his and asked if he would interested in doing an interview in Toronto for a documentary about him.

I never actually expected a reply. It was a long shot as far as I was concerned that he would even read his emails.

When the reply came however, it was in the form of an email from Renee Fairweather, who was Stockwell Day's press secretary at the time. She said Stockwell Day was "very interested" in my proposed documentary and wanted to know more details and set up a time and place.

Surprised, I explained that the interview could take place at York University and that I would be asking him questions about political beliefs/etc. A series of emails followed as we worked out possibilities.

Little did Stockwell Day or Ms Fairweather know that my documentary was going include questions about his CONTROVERSIAL beliefs and also some rather embarrassing questions. The end result would have been a complete mockery of him and shown people just how big of an idiot he really was.

The problem is as the deadline drew closer, I chickened out. I was afraid of what kind of scandal would result and whether I could be sued for creating something which might be considered libel (regardless of how "artistic" my documentary might end up being). But I needed a good excuse for my sudden change of heart.

Fortunately for me, Stockwell provided me with the way out. He made another stupid comment and I used that as an excuse to waylay him with a scathing email in which I told him what a huge moron he was, I suggested that he should resign, and that if he doesn't resign then his own party should revolt against him or separate and make their own party. I suggested they should form a new party and call it the Democratic Representative Party (or something similar). I closed the email by saying "Next time I vote Progressive Conservative!" which is totally a lie, because during university I was a card carrying NDP member.

Then I copied the email and sent it to Renee Fairweather, Stockwell Day and EVERY single member of the Canadian Alliance Party.

Two weeks later Alliance members were revolting. It was front page news across Canada. When I picked up the newspaper that morning I couldn't believe my eyes or what I was reading. They had actually LISTENED to me.

I remember sitting down in Great Canadian Bagel and eating two bagels and drinking some cranberry juice while I read and re-read the articles about the revolt. I had just made history and I was going to enjoy it.

The clincher for me was the resignations. Renee Fairweather had resigned her job as press secretary. It was front page news on the Toronto Star AND the Globe and Mail.

I felt bad about that. I had never intended for her to lose her job. Throughout the emails she seemed like a very nice person. I hope she found a good job elsewhere and has a much better career now.

Indeed, I had never expected anyone to even LISTEN to me. At the time I was just an university student in Ontario, why would they ever listen to me?

But apparently they did. The dissident MPs rebelled against Stockwell Day and over the course of the 2001 it was regular news. The dissidents even formed the Democrative Representative Association, based on my suggestion.

The group of dissidents created a controversy which ended Stockwell Day's career and opened the door for new leadership in the form of Stephen Harper, the person whom is now the prime minister of Canada.

I did not set out to completely destroy Stockwell Day's career. I just wanted to embarrass him. Politicians deserve to be humbled now and then. The Canadian Alliance Party's resulting "implosion" was more of a happy accident.

I remember after it first happened, I told a friend and she didn't believe me. She thought there was no way a single person could have caused such turmoil in a political party. Then I showed her the emails from Renee Fairweather and explained what had happened to the press secretary. She was stunned. It was difficult for her to believe. Before she had firmly believed that my emails and the Alliance "implosion" were purely coincidence, but after she saw the emails from Renee Fairweather and the newspaper clippings I saved from the first day it came out in the news she understood what had happened. My emails were the straw that broke the camel's back, the butterfly that started a hurricane... and it had all been an accident, the result of a prank that was CANCELLED.

This is not the first time that a "backroom scheme" has resulted in a different person taking over the reigns of a political party and becoming Prime Minister. A similar event happened to Joe Clark when Brian Mulroney took over. A leadership debate was setup in which extra Mulroney supporters were brought into the meeting in order to tip the balance of power within the party.

Nor is the last time I have stuck my nose into politics. When the Progressive Conservative Party and the Canadian Alliance Party finally had a merger, I told Joe Clark that he should quit the Conservatives and become a Liberal (albeit temporarily). Belinda Stronach also switched to the Liberals, but that wasn't my doing. She did that on her own.

I also suggested a number of tax reforms which Stephen Harper later made into election promises, but I have yet to see whether he intends to actually KEEP those promises. Time will tell whether the GST will be reduced to 5% or not, along with my income tax reforms.

I waited five years before finally letting this information out publicly. You might even say that I'm bragging, but I don't care. Some people won't even believe this story, but the politicians involved know better and so does Renee Fairweather. Its my 15 minutes of fame. I'm the guy who got rid of Stockwell Day.

In conclusion, be careful what you do when it comes to politics. A little prank can go a long way.

About the Author: Charles Alexander Moffat is a Toronto artist who does paintings about politics, Canada and controversial topics. He shows his artwork internationally and is also a historian, an avid writer and a political activist.