Each of the three federalist parties are in the news today:

Liberals: David Wilkins has given Paul a slap on the wrist for dragging the US into the Canadian election. Wilkins says he understands it’s good politics to be fighting with the Americans…so he decided to fight with Paul Martin. Way to play into David Herle’s machievelian plan Wilkins.

I think the NDP should really pounce on Martin’s Kyoto comments at the debates this week. The environment is an NDP issue and the Conservatives are always afraid of looking too close to the Americans themselves. Layton should stand up and ridicule Martin for attacking George Bush on climate change when the US has a better record than Canada. The environment should be his issue after all.

Conservatives: Harper made the mandatory defense spending announcement today. Defense spending rarely wins votes in Canada but Harper did tack on the “no troops to Iraq” which will likely help him. Out of curiosity, does anyone know how the amount pledged for defense this time compares to his 2004 promise? I suspect it’s less, but haven’t been able to track down firm numbers.

NDP: “Only Jack Layton will look Ralph Klein in the eye and say no.” Or something like that. Layton was very smart during his press conference today to attack the Liberals, rather than the Conservatives and he came across as very forceful and strong on the issue. Clearly a rehearsal for the debates on Thursday and Friday.