StealthCon Crowds

Last election, we had the StealthCon candidates -- people running for the Conservatives to represent constituencies who refused to attend any constituency debates. It was Canada-wide ploy obviously orchestrated by the Conservative party even though none of the candidates ever admitted what Ottawa was telling them to do. (And H/T to RossK for inventing the term.) Their disappearing acts during the campaign may have disappointed their voters, but it certainly turned out to be useful practice for after the election when nobody could find Conservative MPs to say boo about anything.
Now we're seeing the 2011 version -- lets call them the StealthCon Crowds.
These are the mythical crowds of enthusiastic Conservative supporters who are supposedly turning up to cheer for Harper at every stop, those "big crowds" of invisible Canadians who are apparently turning out in droves for Harper's appearances, but none of the media is apparently able to see them.
I don't think the Cons will be seeing then on May 2.

Great line of the day

From BigCityLib:

Harper and Co. spend more time vetting the kids that show up at their rallies then they do their closest advisers.

And how many more times are the media going to solemnly quote that tired old "overzealous staffers" excuse?

Big Red Tent

The Liberal Platform has been released and its "big red tent" theme is going to be a great one. It's a positive, forward-looking document that epitomizes "liberal" values:

Our platform in this election has one overriding objective: to make equal opportunity a reality for every Canadian, whether you live in a big city, a small town, a remote community, a farm or a fishing village.
We will invest in quality, affordable child care for every young family that needs it. We will help every family with the costs of college or university, so your kids can be ready for the jobs of tomorrow. We will help families take time off from work to look after sick loved ones at home. We’ll strengthen universally accessible health care for all, and build on the Canada Pension Plan so everyone can retire in security and dignity. We’ll also have a new tax credit to help with the up-front costs of renovations to make your home more energy-efficient.
Finally, since opportunities for Canadians are now global, we will promote Canadian success overseas and stand up for the proud ideal that a citizen of Canada is truly a citizen of the world.

Steve V writes

I feel like this party has found it's rallying cry, and I know I'm not alone. Many of us railed against this and that, our meandering positions, lack of clear focus. Victory or defeat aside, it feels like we have found something to support, the Liberals have finally armed themselves with a slew of ideas to convey a message.

A week ago, Iggy was was 2,000 "likes" behind Harper on Facebook -- today, Iggy is at 47,418, compared to Harper's 45,684. So Iggy is now 2,000 ahead. And the Liberals as a party are still ahead of the Cons -- there are now 12,474 who like that big red tent, compared to 11,684 for the blue machine.

Ouch!

One week into the campaign, and suspicion is increasing that Harper is snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
QMI agency Michael Harris:

According to the latest Nanos tracking poll, Stephen Harper has managed something of a miracle: He has raised Michael Ignatieff from the political dead.. . . If Harper goes on to blow a near double-digit lead when this campaign began (either to win another minority or hand one to the other side), his substitution of messaging for communication will bear a large part of the responsibility. The prime minister uses language to create facts, not to convey them.

In the Globe and Mail, Adam Radwanski says

What Mr. Ignatieff is doing, with surprising effectiveness thus far, is challenging the campaign model that Mr. Harper and his strategists have turned into the modern orthodoxy.
In place of rigid message discipline, the Liberal Leader is venturing into any number of unscripted and unpredictable situations. He’s taking more questions from reporters and from the public than he needs to; he’s throwing himself at the mercy of hostile restaurant-goers; he’s laying down challenges to the Tory Leader over Twitter.
Having seemed previously to lack stamina, Mr. Ignatieff appears to be actively enjoying the rigours of the hustings. And that sense of energy is rubbing off, not least on media looking to turn a potentially dreary campaign into a more compelling story.

More campaign photos

In London Ontario

Winter-peg

Great campaign photos

In Toronto


Announcing the Canadian Learning Passport.


In Vancouver, under the red umbrellas

Another super-bug

I just found out about another super-bug -- a new kind of pneumonia coming soon to an intensive care ward near you! Whitecoat says

The infection is resistant to most antibiotics and about 40% of infected patients die. But hey – keep popping those Zithromax and Levaquin prescriptions for your coughs and nasal congestion. CRKP is already resistant to those. The only thing that will cure it is colistin which, in one study, caused renal failure in 27% of patients who took it.

The good news just never stops.

A noun, a verb, and "coalition"

Stephen Harper seemed to think all he would need to say to win a majority this time is a noun, a verb and "coalition".
Which has now turned around and bitten him in the ass, as predicted.
So what's next for the Conservatives? Nonsensical "income splitting" proposals and mythical family tax cuts that might take effect when today's grade schoolers have already graduated from high school? While Harper calls non-white Canadians "you people"?
For today's walk down memory lane, Dawg reminds us of 16 Harper Conservative scandals.
And here's an interesting factoid:
Harper is presently "liked" by 43,838 people on the CPC Facebook link. Ignatieff -- after all those hundreds of relentless negative ads -- is already at 41,874 on his Facebook page.
The Conservative Party is liked by 10,326, while the Liberals are at 11,296.

Why don't they ask the League?

Barry McKenna at the Globe and Mail says the coalition "story" is just too easy for the media to do.

“It’s an easy story to do,” Mr. Waddell explained. “All you have to do is take what people say and repeat it. You don’t have to actually think about tougher issues and tougher questions.”

Well, if the media can't think of any questions themselves, they should just contact a few of the League of Extraordinary Canadians -- I'll bet they'd have a few tough questions for the Harper Conservatives.

Iggy's turn

Finally, its Iggy's turn. His first campaign, and Canadians are going to like what they see:



As for the Harper Conservatives, the bloom is off the rose. Curiosity Cat said it better than I could

The Harper Tories are going to find themselves scrambling over the next five weeks to persuade their own supporters to stay the course and ignore the contempt charge and the other scandals popping up all over the place. . . .
With so many seats being won in the past election with thin margins, the Harper Tories have their work cut out for them to avoid losing more than 30 or so seats.

Liz

If you didn't know who Elizabeth Taylor was, see Tom and Lorenzo's tribute post. She lived a crazy life in many ways, but she demonstrated true courage 20 years ago, when she focused on AIDS and raising money for AIDS research, virtually singlehandedly getting society to stop treating people with AIDS like they were lepers.

Ahhhh!

Baby pandas are so cute.


Emerson

Election!

Well, I see I'm likely going to maintain my unblemished record of always being wrong about whether an election is coming or not.
But I will bet that the first thing Harper will do after the writ is dropped is take the F-35 issue off the table by announcing that he's reviewing it.

A definite maybe

When Mount St. Helens blew up and nobody knew whether it would happen again, I heard a radio interview with a learned and many-degreed geologist who said something along the lines of "the situation is extremely flexible. It could stabilize significantly, or deteriorate within the next several days. However, the uncertainty could continue for some time to come."
In other words, it will either get better, or get worse, or stay the same.
I feel the same way now about predictions on whether an election is imminent. Maybe yes, maybe no, maybe we won't know for a while yet.
But overall, I am tending toward "maybe no" -- Jack Layton's hip surgery, the Harper Conservatives' wavering poll numbers, the Carson scandal, the airplane costs, the potential for voters to realize that Iggy actually is a likable guy.... all conspire against a spring election, I think.

Are they kidding?

Remember when the Washington press convinced themselves that Fred Thompson was a sexy presidential candidate because he had a hot wife?

Remember when the Washington press convinced themselves that Rudy Giuliani was a competent presidential candidate because he gave good press conferences after 911?
Well, they're doing it again.