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Former ACT Liberal senator and chief minister Gary Humphries has accused the party's Canberra branch moving too far to the right and losing its way.

Mr Humphries says the Canberra Liberals face years in the political wilderness if they continue to act as foot-soldiers for Prime Minister Tony Abbott's Coalition Government.

Mr Humphries says the debate over same-sex marriage is an example of how the Liberals are out of touch with the community.

He says there is general support for same-sex marriage in Canberra and even among some Liberal MLAs.

"But when the recent debate was held about the ACT Government's legislation, which admittedly was a stunt, those voices were stilled inside the Liberal Party and effectively the sense of the Liberal Party representing a broad church of opinion on issues like that, was denied," he said.

Mr Humphries says the Canberra Liberals need to make a clear distinction between federal and Territory politics.

Since ACT self-government was introduced 25 years ago, the Liberals have won government twice in 1995 and 1998.

"The things that we did in those years to win was to make very clear to the people of the ACT that we were a different brand of Liberalism, to the kind that they were seeing at the federal level," he said.

"I think one of the reasons in 2012 that we failed again after more than a decade of Labor Government, was that we have become less interested in projecting a sense of us being for and about Canberra.

"We are more inclined to want to put our hand up and support what the Federal Liberals are doing, to the detriment of our image in Canberra."

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Humphries: Canberra Liberals have lost touch with community

Andrea Janus, CTVNews.ca Published Thursday, March 27, 2014 12:57PM EDT Last Updated Thursday, March 27, 2014 8:23PM EDT

Ontario Provincial Police allege that former Ontario premier Dalton McGuintys chief of staff hired a staffers boyfriend to wipe out government hard drives that contained information about the $1.1 billion gas plant scandal.

According to an OPP search warrant released Thursday, police are investigating David Livingston, McGuintys last chief of staff, on an allegation of breach of trust. The document alleges that Livingston gave the staffers boyfriend unrestricted access to 24 hard drives from the premiers office to wipe them clean.

Police say in the document that they believe that an analysis of those hard drives will afford evidence of breach of trust.

The allegations have not been tested or proven in court.

Premier Kathleen Wynne said that if true, these allegations are very disturbing.

This is not the way a government should operate, this is not the way a premiers office should conduct itself and it is not the way my office operates, she told reporters in a brief statement Thursday afternoon. She did not take questions.

Wynne noted that Livingston never worked for her or her government, and said she has answered any questions about the gas plant scandal truthfully.

She also said that my office and my government will continue to co-operate fully and to provide all information required as the police investigation goes on.

The search warrant alleges that Livingston gave Peter Faist, identified as partner to McGuintys former deputy chief of staff Laura Miller, access to the drives. Police allege Faist was able to access the hard drives because Livingston gave him the special global administrative right assigned to his executive assistant Wendy Wai.

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Ontario Liberals to co-operate with probe into deleted gas plant emails

ABC Graphic showing final make up of Tasmania's lower house after 2014 election.

The Tasmanian Liberals will go into the new parliament with more than twice as many members as Labor.

The end of counting has confirmed the Liberal Party will govern with a five-seat majority.

The party has won an unprecedented four seats in Braddon.

The Tasmanian Electoral Commission's final count has seen rebel Labor backbencher Brenton Best lose his battle in the north-west electorate.

Mr Best took a parting shot at the ALP.

"I can sleep of a night knowing that I've done the very best I can, I've been honest with the people, I've been upfront and I've tried to run the best campaign that I can given the limited support I had from the party machine throughout the election," said Mr Best.

It is the first time since the size of Parliament was reduced by 10 seats that a party has claimed four out of five seats in any electorate.

Liberal incumbents Adam Brooks and Jeremy Rockliff have been joined by former teacher Joan Rylah and Roger Jaensch in Braddon.

Mrs Rylah says it is an honour to become an MP.

See the article here:

Tasmanian Liberals secure 15 seats as election count ends

The Liberals are pushing for changes to the Commonwealth Electoral Act to ensure that anyone who wants to represent a State or Territory in the Senate has to live there.

According to some reports, 10 of the 77 candidates in the West Australian Senate election live elsewhere in the nation.

Today, Liberal MP Tony Smith made a statement to Federal Parliament on behalf of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, saying that continuing the current situation was not an option.

The Liberals have taken aim at the Palmer United Party this week, saying its preference deals could result in the Help End Marijuana Prohibition Partys lead candidate James Moylan, a Queenslander, winning a Senate seat.

At the last federal election, Tasmania almost ended up with a Sex Party Senator from Canberra, the Liberals said in a statement.

People rightly expect that their state will be represented by someone who lives there and, by extension, shares their local knowledge and goals of getting a better deal for their community.

The committees full report on a range of electoral matters is due to be released later this year.

The Liberals said all of their candidates in the WA Senate election were local.

See the article here:

Libs push to ensure local Senators

Tasmania's Liberals will govern with 15 seats in the state's 25-member lower house, final election counting has confirmed.

Led by Will Hodgman, the party romped to power at the March 15 poll but three seats had remained in doubt until the count was completed.

The Liberals have grabbed an unprecedented four of the five seats in the electorate of Braddon in the state's northwest.

The party has won three seats in Bass, Franklin and Lyons and two in Denison.

Five members are returned in each seat under Tasmania's unique Hare-Clark voting system and the state's five electorates are the same as their federal seats.

Prior to the election each seat had two Labor, two Liberal and one Greens MP.

The ALP will have seven members in the house after former ministers David O'Byrne and Brian Wightman missed out, along with rogue backbencher Brenton Best.

Mr Best had called for Premier Lara Giddings to quit in the lead-up to the campaign, criticising the ALP's power-sharing deal with the Greens.

The Greens' representation has shrunk from five seats, including two cabinet ministers before they were sacked in January, to three MPs.

They will lose their status as a parliamentary party, which is likely to mean a reduction in resources.

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Tasmanian Liberals secure big majority