A few random comments leading up to what will be a very big day tomorrow:

1. A lot was made of how quickly Belinda’s website changed yesterday and the Conservative site was just as quick to remove all mention of Belinda. One assumes Peter MacKay was also busy cutting up his old pictures yesterday.

I only mention this because of what has become a running gag among Liberals in Alberta: the Liberal Party of Canada in Alberta’s (LPCA) website. Go to the main page and you’ll find the top news story is “David Kilgour website launched”. You’ll also see “Prime Minister encourages young Canadians to get out and vote”… for the June 2004 election. Unfortunately, you’ll also find “Bush pledges US to lift beef ban soon”. Some news stories never grow old.

2. How’s this for a Conservative election slogan? “Conservatives: Shooting ourselves in the foot for over 100 years”.

3. The more I think of Belinda’s defection, the less I think of her. Andrew Coyne draws attention to the candidate Belinda bumped – that sounds like someone who should be in Cabinet. The fact of the matter is, even if Belinda was uncomfortable, she owed it to her party to give Harper more than a few hours notice. At least then he could have tried to dissuade her or, at the very least, adjusted his strategy accordingly. It also boggles my mind that she didn’t talk this over with Peter MacKay beforehand. MacKay is handling this a lot better than Harper did yesterday, saying all the right things. If Harper does decide to resign over the summer, MacKay would definitely be a worthy successor.

Oh, and one more thing on Belinda’s defection. Here’s what she said about Scott Brison back when he joined the Liberals:

“It’s unfortunate that Scott Brison did not stay, did not roll up his sleeves if
he didn’t like something…Don’t run from it. Help shape the direction of the
new party.”

4. Stephen Harper’s pledge to support (or abstain?) on the budget makes sense. If nothing else, Liberal candidates won’t be able to say “Stephen Harper and my opponent voted against money for cities and childcare yada yada yada”. Instead, they can focus on the NDP add-on and the perceived “buying votes”.

5. As for the vote tomorrow, baring any last minute surprises, it appears that it’s coming down to Chuck Cadman. It’s looking more and more like David Kilgour will side with the Tories, which means Cadman is on the hot seat. I’m sticking to my prediction from last week that Cadman will go with the government and Kilgour will go with the opposition. That means a dramatic 152-152 vote with Milliken breaking the tie, much to the relief of the Conservatives.

6. On Politics today, Jeff Norquay let it slip that several Tory MPs will be speaking later today about job offers they received from the Liberals. Stay tuned!