Jack Layton, leader of Canada's New Democratic Party, is also defending his Parliament seat in the Toronto-Danforth riding.

This week Toronto-Danforth held its one and only all-candidates debate, which had reportedly been planned around Layton's busy schedule — but Layton turned the event into a most-candidates debate by skipping it. (He, uh, forgot he had to be in British Columbia that night.)

So he sent a replacement, fellow NDPer Peter Tabuns, who was thrown out by the audience on account of not being Jack Layton.

As the news anchor says in the clip below, the situation got ugly. This is what "getting ugly" looks like in Canada.

I'll warn you right now: It involves thoughtful remarks and a show of hands…

Sending a sub to your own riding's debate during a critical election? Down here in America, we call that a maverick move.

At least I'll know who to blame if Sarah Palin shows up to debate Barack Obama next week.

It's been a bit of a rough patch for Canada's New Democratic Party, which has seen three candidates withdraw from their races in the past week.

Seems nude body painting and pot-smoking contests aren't the platform planks they once were!

Let's find out who fired up and who took it all off…

Dana Larsen (West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast)
Larsen was a founding member of the Marijuana Party of Canada, which was cool. But then reports surfaced that a seed bank he started sells coca (as in cocaine) plant seedlings.

Oh, and someone dug up this old footage of Larsen getting baked, fried and toasted on an online show called Pot TV. (Video after the jump.)

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