
Halfway through, the takeaway from this campaign, if the polls are any guide, is: nothing. Nothing has changed. Nothing is working. No one’s support has moved, much, up or down. For all the media hyperventilating about this or that poll — Tories up a point! Libs rebound by two! The Bloc is on the march!— it’s all within the margin of error.
No longer obliged even to pretend concern for the deficit, the parties have thrown everything they don’t have at the voters, a multibillion-dollar barrage of spending and tax promises, all of it borrowed, unlike anything we have seen in decades. Nothing. The prime minister was caught jumping about in blackface, the Conservative leader was found to have padded his resume, all manner of local candidates have been exposed as all manner of things. Nothing.
There may yet be some big shift, with the leading contenders still to face each other in the televised debates. The voters have still to be put on the strategic voting rack, with which they are so often menaced — Stop the Tories! Deny the Grits a majority! Don’t give the balance of power to the Bloc! — into abandoning their previous positions.
But with so little riding on the outcome — the Liberals and Conservatives, in particular, being content to make themselves all but indistinguishable from each other — and so little enthusiasm for any of the alternatives, it is possible to imagine the present trend, or lack of one, continuing through to election day.
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See Also:
(1) Andrew Scheer on defensive in first French-language election debate
(2) Four party leaders churn out the ‘baloney’ at French-language debate
(3) Jason Kenney headed to Ontario to campaign for Andrew Scheer in crucial Toronto-area ridings
(4) Trudeau goes for fear over facts once again on gun violence
(5) Why do the rules of politics not apply to Justin Trudeau? Because he’s a celebrity first
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