February 12th: “Canadians are concerned about the economy right now, they don’t want to see politicians playing political games at the moment,” the Prime Minister’s communications director, Kory Teneycke, said, explaining why they haven’t done to Mr. Ignatieff what they did to Mr. Dion. “But we’re not focused on politics right now. We’re not planning to go to a campaign right now.”

March 1st: The Conservatives are scouring hundreds of hours of videotape as they prepare to pummel their key rival Michael Ignatieff with attack ads leading up to the next election.