Poll Soup: I’ll post updated projections soon, but Nanos has the Tories up 41% to 29% and Ekos has it 37% to 26%.
Election Prediction Project: CPC 113, Lib 63, NDP 22, Bloc 35, Too close 77
Gaffe Pool: A surprisingly gaffe free week – Harper 3, Ignatieff 0, Layton 0, Duceppe 0.
Ad watch: Ignatieff gets personal and Jack tackles the Tim Horton’s crowd.
In the Air: The media have named the campaign planes UnnecessAir (Libs), ScareMongAir (CPC), and Hipster Air (NDP).
Quote of the Week: Gilles Duceppe, on coalitions (at least I hope it’s about coalition): “They all want to be in our bed, but no one wants to marry us.”
On the Web: Blunt Objects better knows Burlington and Rob Silver rips Harper a new one on coalitions.
In Case you Missed it:
I look national and key riding predictions
Interview with Stephen Randall
Tory troll application
Return of the coalition crisis
Election Primer
Liberal Week in Review
Battle Cry: “You get a billion dollar program, you get a billion dollar program. Everybody gets a billion dollar program!”
The week that was: By nearly all media accounts, it was a good week for the Grits. After some opening weekend stumbles around coalitions, Ignatieff rolled out platform planks each day, culminating in today’s platform launch. Ignatieff sounded confident and looked like a leader.
True, they lost Tony Genco, but for those who know Tony Genco, I’m not sure we can necessarily call that a negative…
Conservative Week in Review
Battle Cry: “Coalition! Coalition! Coalition! No more questions.”
The week that was: It wasn’t a disastrous week. Puting on work gloves backwards isn’t going to cost Stephen Harper the election. But, rather than take the opportunity to sell a very popular budget, Harper veered off course, promising policies that wouldn’t be put into place for at least another five years. As Scott Feschuk tweeted: “Harper’s campaign announcement tomorrow: Effective 2028, a tax credit on all robot butlers“.
Then, there was the bizarre challenge to Ignatieff for a one-on-one debate…which was pulled the second Ignatieff agreed to it. It was like the schoolyard bully challenging the president of the chess club to a fight, then running away when his diminutive opponent had the guts to show. It also allowed Rick Mercer to get off the tweet of the week (“When Harper challenged Iggy to debate I missed part where he said in 2015 when debt erased. My bad.”) before offering to host and moderate the debate himself.
Not the start Harper wanted but, then again, when you’re playing with a 3 goal lead, one or two turnovers isn’t the end of the world, so long as you don’t make a habit of it.
NDP Week in Review
Battle Cry: “Only New Democrats can beat Conservatives…and if they don’t, they just join ’em“.
The week that was: Jack Layton artfully put to rest questions about his health by offering to get naked for the press gallery. And after seeing Layton energetically hop from coast to coast in week 1, he certainly looks to be in fighting shape.
As for the campaign itself, it has been the standard Layton playbook. Go to Edmonton and talk about Health Care, then jet to Montreal to trash the oilsands. Run cartoon ads attacking Harper. Go after credit cards companies. I can only assume there will be something about ATM fees and/or kitchen tables in week 2.
