Kick at the Darkness

Harper had a big day. The same sex marriage talk was a big deal. There are only a few possible explanations for this:

• Harper is a true believer and he would rather lose the election than give up on the issue. Admirable in a lot of ways, but electable in not so many;
• Harper is pulling a Karl Rove and working to 'rally the base', especially in the first part of a long campaign when fundraising is going to be extremely important; or
• He has not been paying attention for the last 6 months and is content to be the hero of southern Alberta and harbors no ambitions where occupying the PMO is concerned.

Layton pandered to the undergrad set at U of T.

I hope that Layton does not think that he can just promise to cut cheques. This has been the classic NDP mistake. The thing is, the good people of Canada can do math, and realize that if you promise eleventy gagillion dollars to everything (even if valid) you will run out of eleventies and gagillions.

The Bloc refused to run away from the PQ. The winning conditions are quickly becoming a huge issue. Unity has never really been an election issue (as I remember it), it was always a between-elections thing. It will interesting to see how that plays out.

The Greens got going today. The challenge is still going to be making the transition from 'raisers of the debate' to 'winners of the election'. Presumably, the full platform will help them more than most parties, who have already staked out most of their position during the minority.