Campaign 2008

Election campaigns are all about rhetoric and notoriously devoid of serious policy discussion. André Pratte from La Presse suggested that scheduling regular debates between the two main contenders would make more serious policy discussion possible, but this is unlikely to happen anytime soon.

In keeping with the style of the campaign, I'll be updating my blog much more regularly in the next few weeks, but not necessarily to do anything more than comment on the performance of the party leaders in the last 24 hours.

While day 1 of the campaign was largely won by the Conservatives, day 2 was Liberal victory. They set the agenda by announcing a policy that would ban assault weapons like the one used in the Dawson College shootings, and dominated the news until word broke out that Elizabeth May would be excluded from the Leaders' debate. The also unveiled a series of new ads which, while falling short of ground braking, are still well made and on message. The French ads are much better than their English counterparts and could go far. They are combative without being excessively negative, and also show the strength of the Liberal team.

It was an uneventful day for Stephen Harper. No major mistakes, but an unsuccessful attempt to control the day's agenda by calling a press conference at 6.00 am. The idea backfired because the journalists were so angry at being woken up that they covered the morning news with clips of Conservative ministers fumbling in their answers to straightforward questions!