Global News – Decision 2008 – Blogs

Dion heads to his HQ

Hannah Thibedeau — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 18:55:00 GMT

Stephane Dion did a last-ditch cross-country tour yesterday. He made his way back from Vancouver to Montreal just hours before results came in.

Before we left for Montreal, Dion and Mme Kreiber had their pictures taken with the flight crew. On board, Dion and his campaign team appeared to be in good moods, joking around and giving speeches.

This is election headquarters ... and there isn't a heck of a lot of space for supporters.

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Final travel tally

Peter Harris — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 21:09:00 GMT

43,990 kilometres by air.

4,850 kilometres by bus.

68 hours of air travel.

Enough to circle the globe 1,25 times.

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Retro Jack on Much

Ben OHara-Byrne — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 20:59:00 GMT

Jack Layton admits golden Can-Con moldie "Rise Up" is his favorite song at Muchmusic.. And is met with a room full of blank stares...

Seems the 80's may be back but Parachute Club is not.. Maybe Platinum Blonde would have elicited a stronger response!!

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Harper across Canada

Peter Harris — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:38:00 GMT

It's an amazing thing to see Canada in a day as Harper goes coast to coast in a bid for votes in precious ridings with tight races.

Here's New Brunswick:

Saskatchewan:

Misty B.C., where Harper hopes the Liberals will get a soaking:

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Truth in advertising

Ben OHara-Byrne — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:56:00 GMT

On day 37 of the campaign, the billboard above Layton's head couldn't be more true. (My ears are aching too, by the way)

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Giving thanks?

Peter Harris — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 07:06:00 GMT

The huddled mass on a cold, wet Thanksgiving Monday wait to board Harper's plane.

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Mad dash

Peter Harris — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 06:43:00 GMT

Harper kicks off his final mad dash: Charlottetown, Fredericton, Vancouver and then back to Calgary for E-day.

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A matter of perspective

Peter Harris — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 16:02:00 GMT

It's all about perspective:

Harper drew a big crowd of about 700 people in Quebec City...

But left a whole in the room big enough to drive three buses through ...

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Dishing it out ... sorta

Peter Harris — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 07:51:00 GMT

The Prime Minister opting to dish up baked beans at a Thanksgiving breakfast in St-Tite, Que. instead of dishing out answers on the second last day of the campaign.

The chances of speaking to him today? "Zero to none."

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The kitchen table, not the boardroom table

Ben OHara-Byrne — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 23:03:00 GMT

After spending weeks and weeks listening to Jack Layton reference "the kitchen table," media on his campaign conspired to finally get him seated at one.

So this one was wating for him when he arrived for our final flight before election day. The tablecloth was signed by reporters ... highlighted by a transcript of a favorite question put to Layton in St. John's weeks ago: "Do you really think anyone is buying this socialist crap?"

Layton had a good laugh at it all.

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Harper musters the troops

Peter Harris — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 16:52:00 GMT

Friday night was all about who had the biggest rally in the Big Smoke.

On the same night the Liberals listened to Jean Chretien and rallied around Stephane Dion downtown, Stephen Harper had about 1,400-1,500 supporters out to a conference centre near Pearson International Airport.

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Brampton's big rally

Hannah Thibedeau — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 16:47:00 GMT

They are estimating about 1,400 people so far at the Liberal rally in Brampton. This is the biggest rally yet for Dion.

The room is filled and spills wayyy out into the hallway.

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Hitting Cruise Control

Peter Harris — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 16:02:00 GMT

Over the next two days, Canadians will carve up more than just turkey. Voters will slice away at who they want governing Canada through these historic days and coming up with an answer means asking lots of questions of themselves, their family, and friends about what party fits the bill.

Meanwhile, Stephen Harper wants to leave a good last impression and in these last critical days his campaign team may be shutting down questions to get it done.

The Conservatives are still considering a scrum or 'availability' tomorrow but it isn't a sure thing, and Monday will be jammed with whistlestops across the country as Harper flies west to Calgary. They argue this faster pace will make it too busy for questions raising, well, at least one big question: is this the return of the bubble?

Critical missteps in the dying days of the 2004 and 2006 campaigns cost the PM seats. The Conservatives dread the prospect of another last-second mistake, especially as their internal polls give them a bounce (in fact, the campaign has been less nervous in the last couple days).

This means voters will see a lot of Stephen Harper but cannot expect to hear much more beyond the stump speech.

Summing Up The Latest Polls

Darrell Bricker — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 14:25:00 GMT

Mostly consensus on the final polls - the Tories ranging between 33 and 35, the Grits 25-29, the NDP 18-22. No matter how you add it up, it doesn't look like a Tory majority. It will all come down to how the votes split in Ontario. The "ballot box bonus" the Grits picked up in the last two elections, mainly in the 905, will be the biggest wildcard. It gave Martin a win in '04, and shrunk Harper's majority in '06.

Assuming that you're interested in politics (I assume you are, or why else would you be reading this), I'll be on Global National's election coverage on Tuesday night. I'll be reviewing the results of our exit poll with Eric Sorenson, but also will be live blogging on Global National's website. Please join me if you can.

Dion's daughter

Hannah Thibedeau — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:21:00 GMT

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion's 20-year-old daughter Jeanne (pictured here with dark hair wearing a striped shirt) has joined her dad for the last few days of the campaign. But she won't be there all day on election day ... heading off to take an exam in 20th century American history.

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One-upMOMship

Ben OHara-Byrne — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:40:00 GMT

Jack Layton went off his script at a speech in Toronto today to do one better than stephen harper..

The prime minister has spent the past few days talking about his mom, her worries about the economy. Layton's mom is actually here to watch him speak to 400 or so supporters. He introduced her and Olivia Chow's mom as well. A case of one upmomship indeed!

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The Tale of the Tape

Peter Harris — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 01:26:00 GMT

Stephen Harper's tour usually runs on a tight schedule but Thursday's Winnipeg stop turned out to be very different.

The Conservatives delayed the campaign plane's departure by well over an hour. Wheeling out a TV, they desperately wanted reporters to catch a local CTV anchor in Halifax grilling Grit leader Stephane Dion.

The anchor asked Dion, "If you were Prime Minister now, what would you have done about the economy and this crisis that Mr. Harper had not done?" Dion stumbled badly. Then again. Then again. Three big fumbles as he tried to figure out the question and how to answer. It wasn't pretty.

Smelling blood, the Tories ran into the media filing room minutes later: Mr. Harper would do an old-fashioned close-up scrum, something he hasn't done at all during the campaign.

Reporters hastily set up in a hallway, staffers argued over where the 'x' for the PM's spot to stand should go, and finally Harper emerged to say the flub was all about how his opponent would handle the economy. For the Tories, this was a major policy error.

But a handful of the French reporters on the plane were wondering if it wasn't something entirely different. They debated if the Dion slip-up was a result of his language skills. As one reporter said to me, "This could boomerang for Harper."

Before it was over it started swinging back. In his French answer about the gaffe Harper said “When you’re running a $1.5 trillion economy, you don’t get a re-take.” The only thing is that a trillion in French is very different than trillion in English. Ironically, Harper stumbled in his second language.

The Harper campaign has taken a beating in Quebec over their promise of stiffer sentences for young offenders and recent cuts in funding for artists. A couple staffers are starting to concede that Quebec isn't looking good and holding on to their 10 seats might be a challenge.

If Stephen Harper's colour commentary on the Dion tape is wrong, and voters (especially in Quebec) see it more as a blooper and less about policy, could this be strike three for Harper in Quebec?

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Prime Minister Dion

Peter Harris — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 19:59:00 GMT

As he feels the heat form anxious voters watching their personal savings evaporate away, Stephen Harper revealed a new rhetorical trick to his answers. At his stop earlier today in Richmond, BC he called Liberal leader Stephane Dion “Prime Minister Dion” – not once, but three times during a scrum.

Here’s one of those answers: “I’ve said from the outset that I believe this is a close election that can go any way,” said Harper, “I’ve said that from day one. I’ve reminded some of you that we were behind in the polls two weeks before this election began. So, this is an election that can go either way but there will be one of two outcomes: there will either be Prime Minister Dion, who will tackle our economic problems by increasing spending that we can’t afford and increasing taxes to pay for it or our government which will keep spending under control and keep taxes going down. Those are the two choices dealing with the economic problems in front of us.”

As one of his advisors said to me, this is a very deliberate attempt to boil down into three words what they hope is the ballot question - Dion versus Harper - but there is a risk to this approach, too. By going public saying “this is a close election”, Harper is admitting that the past few days have hurt the Conservative campaign and that the party’s internal polling is likely telling them it is a close race.

Also, this election will be decided this weekend at kitchen tables as families and friends talk turkey and hash out where they plan to mark their ballot. What if people don’t mind the sound of those three words together? They’re counting on the idea that it will drive enough voters away but, as Mr. Harper even admits, the Liberal brand is a strong one.

Enter the heavy hitters

Hannah Thibedeau — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:01:00 GMT

Stephane Dion has brought out the Liberal big guns to help him out in these final days on the hustings.

Tomorrow it will be an appearance by former Prime Minister Jean Chretien. The Liberal campaign will be in vote-rich Ontario and Chretien will introduce Dion at a rally in Brampton.

Yesterday, former Prime Minister Paul Martin introduced Dion at the Economic Club and Canadian Club in Toronto.

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Full house

Hannah Thibedeau — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 16:31:00 GMT

The room at the Liberal rally in Laval, Quebec quickly filled up and they had to open up another room.

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More on the Economy...

Darrell Bricker — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 16:18:00 GMT

Lots of action on the blog regarding the economy. Hope this helps:

1. Harper and the Tories get the best performance scores on every economic performance question we ask;

2. Canadians don't feel the economy is doing badly at the moment. All of their concerns are about the future. We're now getting among the worst scores we've ever had on "economy will worsen over the next year";

3. The majority of Canadians think the US financial crisis will hit Canada hard, and that our financial insititutions are at risk.

Bottom line, these are scary, scary times. Harper needs to walk a fine line between scaring Canadians, and reassuring them. So far, he hasn't been able to find the necessary middle ground. And, Canadians don't trust him enough to just take his word for it.

Rockin' the vote

Hannah Thibedeau — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 12:51:00 GMT

Tragically Hip lead guitarist Rob Baker is back. Now he's travelling on the plane as a part of the Dion entourage.

As the Globe and Mail's Jane Taber writes, Bono is now a not (former Paul Martin pitch man) ... Rob is a hot!!

Maybe he is Dion's rockin' strategist?

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Airplane hum blots out scrum

Peter Harris — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:54:00 GMT

Conservative candidate James Moore scrumming on the tarmac at the Victoria airport as an airplane roars its engines a few metres away.

Let's just say what he said wasn't all that clear thanks to the plane ...

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Tough crowd

Peter Harris — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:07:00 GMT

'Nuff said:

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Layton sews up the youth vote

Ben OHara-Byrne — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 18:03:00 GMT

Campaign poster seen at PEI stop:

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Stephen Harper: fashion icon

Peter Harris — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:54:00 GMT

The picture writes its own caption:

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Opposites attract

Peter Harris — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:50:00 GMT

The Canadian Auto Workers union held a meeting right next door to the media room used by the Conservatives for today's platform launch.

Toronto's a big town but CAW economist Jim Stanford (seen here) said it was strictly serendipity. The focus for the CAW meeting? What to do about the evaporating jobs in Canada's auto plants.

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PM protection

Peter Harris — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:44:00 GMT

The PM's security detail was 10 officers deep in Laval, Quebec. Protesters had just crashed the speech but were drowned out by one of Harper's liveliest crowds yet, chanting "Harper! Harper! Harper!"

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Here's Where It's Going Wrong for Harper on the Economy

Darrell Bricker — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 16:49:00 GMT

It looks like Harper is slipping in the tracking polls. While there's some confusion as to what's happening to the other parties, there's no denying that the Tory vote is under pressure. What's going on? After all, Harper and the Tories are way ahead on "best able to manage in an economic crisis". The logical conclusion is that the Tories should be rising, not falling.

Here's the problem. In the midst of relentless news to the contrary, Harper appears to be whistling past the graveyard. Granted, he doesn't want the public to panic, but he needed to at least admit much sooner that there's a serious problem. Otherwise the person who is supposed to be the best manager looks to be the least prepared. Again, it's about comparing performance to expectations. That's where Harper is failing.

Warming up Liberal supporters

Hannah Thibedeau — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:42:00 GMT

The Liberals brought out the bongos and sang "Bring the Party Back" to warm up the crowd before Stephane Dion arrived.

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Stephane's biggest fan?

Hannah Thibedeau — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:23:00 GMT

Local Colwood resident Wendy Perry made up bumper stickers and t-shirts with the slogan I Am CanaDion. She is a huge fan:

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Slip Sliding Away...

Darrell Bricker — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:03:00 GMT

As I wrote in an earlier posting, the Tories biggest problem is that they don't have a second act. They decided to run on Harper's leadership (steady hand on the tiller in turbulant times), and it wasn't enough. I thought the US credit crisis might serve as the Tories second act, but even that hasn't helped them stop their now traditional end-of-campaign slide.

In 2006 the Tories decided to drop their policy book at the start of the campaign. Brilliant idea. It gave them something to point to anytime a critic said they had a hidden agenda. "No we don't, it's all right here."

This time, they've held their policy book until the end. As a result, it's all Harper all the time. Let's face it, he's not popular enough to sustain this level of attention for an entire campaign. Granted, voters like him better than Dion, but they still don't like him. Sure, they respect him. But, that's not the same as liking him. There's no Harper-mania.

So, will the Tory policy book contain enough to stop the slide? The Conservatives sure hope so.

The Day After...

Darrell Bricker — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 21:36:00 GMT

There's a week to go, and it's looking less likely every day that Stephen Harper and the Tories will form a majority. This means the day after the election could be way more interesting than the election itself.

Why? Because all sorts of coalition governments become possible. Consider this scenario. Harper and the Tories win a pluarlity of the seats, but not as many seats as the NDP and Grits combined. The possibility of a Lib/NDP government becomes very, very real. After all, Ontario was governed by a Lib/NDP coalition in the mid-80s under a similar set of circumstances. And, who was one of the leaders that made the Ontario coalition possible? None other than former Ontario NDP Premier, and current federal Liberal star, Bob Rae.

There's three ways that Harper could prevent a Lib/NDP coalition. The first would be getting defeated on a new Speech from the Throne and forcing another election. That, however, may not work given that the GG could ask an opposition leader to try and form a government. Harper's second option would be to form his own coaltion. His only likely partner would be Gilles Duceppe and the BQ. While this might look like political suicide in the short term, desperate times call for desperate measures. Harper's final option would be to induce a number of opposition members to cross the floor (a la David Emerson) to give him a larger number of seats than the Libs and NDP combined.

What worries me is that this political fandango will be taking place during one of the worst economic crises since the end of the second world war. Yikes!

Stephen Harper's Day Off

Peter Harris — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 21:11:00 GMT

The Harper campaign is taking a breather back in Ottawa tomorrow and I have wondered how a politician justifies a day off with just over a week to go until election day.

Stephen Harper wandered to the back of the plane and cleared it up. On top of the fact that he's running a frontrunner's campaign, the PM finds the debates to be the most exhausting part of an election. "There's only two nights in this campaign and it's always the same: the two nights after the debates," he said, "this is how I was in school: I always slept before an exam, I could never sleep after exams because I always got so keyed up."

He was so keyed up after the English debate that he got up at 3AM to watch the vice-presidential debate between Senator Joe Biden and Governor Sarah Palin. How does he control these nerves? "You're always best to pace yourself," he said, a bit of wisdom he gleaned from - wait for it - Pierre Trudeau and the steady, announcement-a-day pace Trudeau kept against Joe Clark in 1980.

He also added that voters usually have their minds made up heading into an election. "A lot of the campaign occurs before the campaign,' said Harper, "Campaigns are important but a lot of minds are made up before you get there."

Harper admitted that he made mistakes in the 2006 election (but didn't elaborate) and said this campaign is going more or less as planned adding that it "may be more fluid than some others ... (long 15-second pause as he picked his words carefully) ... because of the nature of some of the campaigns." Hmm - what campaign could he mean?

A little move to the left ...

Ben OHara-Byrne — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 16:40:00 GMT

Jack Layton does a little Inuit square dancing in Iqaluit:

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A real bargain

Ben OHara-Byrne — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 12:34:00 GMT

Yours (the t-shirt) for $15 at NDP rally in Halifax..

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My kingdom for a pineapple

Ben OHara-Byrne — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 12:25:00 GMT

Rising food prices getting you down? Well, imagine living in Iqaluit. This pic was snapped while following the NDP Layton Tour in Iqaluit.

I took a quick trip into the local North Mart grocery store on a busy Friday night here in this town of 6,000 to see what people eat and how much they pay for it (a habit I've indulged in from Kabul to Quito). I knew prices would be high but aisle by aisle I got a hard and fast lesson in northern economics...

Pineapple - $11.99 ea,
Tropicana orange juice - 1.8L - $8.49,
Lucky Charms cereal - $7.39 (on sale!!)
Milk - $14.19 for 4L (3 bags),
Frozen pizza - $12.99.
Crest toothpaste - $5.99.

It's also spawned one of the more peculiar attacks on the Liberal Green Shift, with the Conservative candidate here warning voters a carbon tax would see the price of a single watermelon (yes just one watermelon) skyrocket from $50 to $100. Scary stuff.

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Away he goes into the final stretch ...

Peter Harris — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 10:41:00 GMT

Stephen Harper left the Ottawa airport this morning to the cheers of about 140 loyal fans on his way to New Brunswick, where the Tories believe there are seats ready to be plucked away from the Liberals.

We were hustled out the back door of the plane to cover Harper's remarks. The party even set up a sound box and velvet ropes in anticipation - only the PM didn't say a word.

Here's the strange part: an RCMP officer pushed us back behind the velvet rope and got in a barking match with one reporter. "I am instructed to put you back there," he said. The people telling him to push reporters back? One of Harper's political staffers, the same one batting away the TV crew's microphone during this photo-op.

This is another incident in a growing list of evidence showing that the Conservatives are using police officers for PR control. Maybe it's just me but people carrying weapons shouldn't be spinning and controlling media during an election campaign.

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Harper Best In English Debate, But Layton the Real Winner...

Darrell Bricker — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 10:29:00 GMT

Here's how 2,512 Canadians who viewed the English language debate scored it. The first number is what they thought after the debate, the second number is what they expected before the debate:

Who won:

- Harper 31% (40% pre)

- Layton 25% (20% pre)

- May 17% (4% pre)

- Dion 15% (4% pre)

And, here's their net impression scores (subtracting impressions worsened from impressions improved):

- Harper -10

- Dion +11

- Layton +28

- May +49

How does this add up? First, Dion did not keep the momentum going from the French language debate. He needed a big win and didn't get it. Second, Harper needed a win, got it, but did not perform to the level that people expected. But, Harper's campaign is now back on track in English Canada. From a political perspective, even though he didn't win the debate, Jack Layton may be the biggest winner in terms of votes. Finally, Elizabeth May became a political star last night. However, apart from consolidating some of the "none of the aboves", she probably hasn't moved enough votes in specific places to win seats.

Overall, the last week is shaping up like this:

- The Tories will almost certainly win. But, will it be a minority or majority?

- Harper's big breakthrough in Quebec has stalled.

- The most interesting dynamic is the NDP vs the Grits in urban Canada. Will those soft NDP voters who moved to the Grits to stop Harper in '04 and '06 stick with the NDP this time? If they do, the Grits will drop a bunch of seats, not just to the NDP, but also to the Tories who can come up the middle depending on the splits.

- Will Elizabeth May and the Greens break through and win a seat?

Stay tuned. It's shaping up to be a very interesting week.

The calm before the storm

Peter Harris — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 17:16:00 GMT

The stage is set for the debate, take two.

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Dion Wins!

Darrell Bricker — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:04:00 GMT

Stephane Dion won the French debate. Why? Because he out-performed the incredibly low expectations people had for him. And, that's what this game is about - how do you perform against what is expected of you.

Will he be able to do the same in the English debate? It remains to be seen. He starts again with incredibly low expectations, but he is really hampered by his difficulty with the English language. Add in the fact that almost a third of the viewers will be surfing over to the Pallin-Biden debate, and it will be tough to get noticed.

But, regardless of what happens in the Engish debate, yesterday was the only really good day Dion has had so far in this campaign.

Spinning the debate

Peter Harris — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 20:05:00 GMT

For the last two hours, the five federal leaders went after each other on eight different topics ranging from the economic crisis in the US to arts funding to the Afghan mission.

My BlackBerry buzzed like a fridge during the entire French debate, emitting a digital guffaw every time a leader made a statement. This buzzing was the sound of war rooms cranking out the spin behind the scenes.

Here's the Top 3 final tally after all this noise: the NDP win for sheer volume with 17 press releases, counterpoints and 'reality checks' over the course of the debate; the Liberal war room sent out 13 emails and managed to squeak in the last word ("Harper's imaginary arts spending"); the Conservatives sent out only 7 counterpunches but had the most efficient attack with a release called "Partisanship" that pulled in an Ottawa-based academic on top of both the Liberals and NDP.

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Does Plagarism Matter?

Darrell Bricker — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 14:39:00 GMT

Not usually. Though many a politician has been embarrassed by getting caught ripping off a speech, it typically is somebody running for the leadership of something (like Joe Biden). It's not sitting PMs. Frankly, most of the words that they and their Ministers spout are written by others. As are the words of their major opponents.

Yesterday I saw an interview with Bob Rae in which he claimed that he wrote every word that he ever spoke in office. Really? Better hope that nobody checks that "greeting to the Rotarians of Cambridge, Ont", or the many other routine speaking events he had as Ontario's Premier. Of course he used speech writers. No one expects that he wouldn't. And, he'd better hope that none of his speechwriters ever cribbed from another politician. The line about living in glass houses and casting stones comes to mind.

Leaving aside the plagarism charge (which, in itself, is trivial). The subject matter and circumstances of this speech are especially damaging. I definitely agree with Mr. Rae on this point. If it was about anything other than Harper's SUPPORT for the war in Iraq, nobody would care. But, since this is a glaring reminder that Harper was on the wrong side of history, it challenges his very carefully nurtured image as a surefooted and measured (as opposed to risky) steward of the nation. So, how does this make you feel about a Harper majority?

We will see where this one goes. You know Harper will be vigorously challenged about this issue in both the French and English debates. If he doesn't have a great answer to allow the election narrative to move on, he could be in some trouble. Enough trouble to lose? Definitely not. Enough trouble to keep him from a majority? Very possible.

Final point, I know Owen Lippert, the Tory sppechwriter who resigned. He's a fine scholar and a talented writer. It's a shame to see him dragged through the mud like this. Owen - chin up. This too will pass.

Who Will Win the Debate?

Darrell Bricker — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:51:00 GMT

Conventional wisdom says that you evaluate debate performance by first looking at expectations. A candidate who comes into a debate with low expectations, and then scores reasonably well, will impress voters more than a candidate who comes in with high expectations and performs well.

On this basis, Stephane Dion should come out of this debate the winner. Expectations for his performance couldn't be much lower than they are. However, he's got so many factors playing against him that it's hard to see how this happens. Here's what's working against him:

- In the French language debate, where Dion should have a natural advantage, he's the third man in a two-way fight between Harper and Duceppe. It will be tough for the Liberal leader to be relevant in this context.

- In the English language debate Mr. Dion's task will be even harder. Leaving aside his issues with English, Mr. Dion has to be heard over three other hyper-active leaders who are all looking to take a piece out of Mr. Harper. Add in that many viewers of the English language debate will also be flipping back and forth with the US VP's debate, and Mr. Dion's window for a game-changing performance is very, very narrow.

While one can never say never, the fat lady looks to be clearing her throat in the wings.

Ready for the Second Act...

Darrell Bricker — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 17:03:00 GMT

The economic situation in the US got a whole lot worse today. While Stephane Dion argues that Tory times are tough times, the Tories currently own economic management as a political issue, not the Liberals. For some time I've been arguing that the Tories need a second act if they want to win a majority. That's because Harper's leadership only gets them to the high 30s. For a comfortable majority, they have to get about 42.

The Tory's second act appears to have come in the form of the US credit meltdown. The public is now focussed squarely on a risky economy - the perfect ballot question for the Tories.

Staying on message

Peter Harris — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 11:28:00 GMT

It's no secret that politicians and their strategists try to keep politics to a tightly controlled script, and this is especially true during a campaign.

Politicians rely on teleprompters much of the time and Stephen Harper is no exception, looking to a prompter for his carefully-crafted words at each of his campaign stops.

This prompter at the war room is the mother of all teleprompters: flat screen, plasma, and no doubt in HD. My guess is that it will keep him on message today - but I've been known to be wrong ...

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Sky-high birthday celebration

Hannah Thibedeau — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 17:42:00 GMT

Stephane Dion gets a birthday cake from the airline crew:

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A warning about that guy Steve

Hannah Thibedeau — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 07:57:00 GMT

At a Liberal women's event in Toronto on Sunday they handed out these bumper stickers.

It's a picture of Stephen Harper with the words, "He's just not that into you."

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Dion's early birthday gift -- courtesy the media

Hannah Thibedeau — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 23:55:00 GMT

Tomorrow (Sunday) is Stephane Dion's 53rd birthday and he's made a last-minute decision to spend it Toronto campaigning.

But on the flight back to Ottawa Saturday afternoon, the press corps travelling with him pitched in to buy him a gift. It's a puffin painted by Paule St. Laurent -- Louis St. Laurent's granddaughter.

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The littlest Grit

Hannah Thibedeau — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 19:56:00 GMT

The liberals are signing them up young:

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