Pundits Unleashed: Tales of the Campaign 005

Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock, the time is almost nigh. The buses and planes will soon be parked and the ballot boxes soon unlocked. Election Day mercifully is about to dawn, we mark our X, sit back and await the victor, the loser, the kingmaker and the brooders.

The talking heads and pencil pushing editorialists will get one final kick at this election as the overwhelming media machine reaches it’s crescendo with wall to wall coverage across the country starting at 4pm PST (7PM in that block of votes known as Central Canada).

Before we trot off to mark our X and then settle in with Kevin, Pete, Lloyd et al one last batch of wisdom from the pundits, the long month of campaigning has given their thesauruses a workout, but surely there must be one lasting point to make before the viewer/reader/voter takes over the show.

To get things of to a rousing start we turn our attention to the gem of the Rock, Rex Murphy. The national moderator held court one final time on Sunday with Cross Country check up, give a listen to constitutional experts, political pundits and the great unwashed electorate as they try and sort out the fact from fiction, the frivolous from the fundamental. The two hours of archived material may not help you make up your mind, but you’ll surely realize that Canadians are if nothing else engaged in the debate, cynicism not withstanding.

Edward Greenspon addresses the fallout to the Globe and Mails rather tepid endorsement of the Paul Martin Liberals earlier this week. An event, which has seemingly attracted more than its fair share of vitriolic backwash. Including apparently a wish for the Globe to receive a mustard enema! Greenspon recounted the history of the Globe, its independence from partisan politics and its dedication to balanced reporting, with or without the aid of mustard.

And possibly to prove a point, the Globe’s Business section provided John Carrick with an opportunity to inform us which party had our best financial wishes at heart. If pure financial self interest is your barometer on voting day, then Carrick suggests you find a Conservative candidate to whom to declare your X towards. So if pure material wealth at any cost is your bag the Globe spells it all out for you.

Roy MacGregor prepares to put away the Globe’s gold card and end his cross Canada quest for the pulse of the voter. With a final stop on the West Coast, MacGregor discovers that British Columbians look forward to their role in this electoral debate with great relish. Perhaps for the first time since 1871 BC will matter to the rest of Canada, and BC is enjoying its possible role as kingmaker/spoiler, holding the Easterners hostage to the wee hours of Tuesday before they know who their new leader will be.

John Ibbitson of the Globe explores those that have shaped the beliefs of Stephen Harper. Heading for Calgary Ibbitson wandered the halls of the University of Calgary, the apparent laboratory for the new Conservative agenda. Find out the deep secrets held within those walls as Canada’s possible political future was formulated. The flashpoint and high priest of the new agenda is Tom Flanagan, who has been the main backroom organizer for the Harper team. Ibbitson traces the development of Harper from student to trailblazer from the Petri dish of Conservative belief.

Over at the Star, Richard Gwyn explains the contrariness of this election, one which will give the separatist Bloc Quebecois its largest seat count ever at the same time that the people of Quebec have expressed no interest in the actual goal of that party. Gwyn explores the impact that two provincial Premiers, McGuinty and Klein had on the election. Highlighting how their actions more than anything else affected the response to the Federal positions. And then there is the Canadian voter, wanting to punish the Liberals desperately, but not sure if they should willingly hand the keys to 24 Sussex to the Harper acolytes.

Graham Fraser uses the Star’s pages to examine the ugliness of the campaign, the cynicism of the debate and the anguish the electorate must feel as they go to mark their ballot. Yet through it all he can see the glint of hope overcoming that cynical mindset. With a minority government the most likely outcome, he feels that finally Parliament will be made to work. Marking a positive development for an institution, that has been abused horribly over the years.

Miro Cernetig rains on the feel good aura with his dispatch from Quebec, fresh from a Bloc rally where the troops are treating the upcoming rout of the Liberals as the start of the long march to Independence. Gilles Duceppe may be running around claiming its just an election, but the troops in the Bloc and PQ trenches are hailing this as Bastille Day redux. Worse for Martin is the distinct possibility that his trusted lieutenant and former BQ MP Jean Lapierre is going to be humiliated in his own province. Setting the tone for a campaign that went horribly wrong in a place where it was supposed to be so right.

Douglas Fisher at the Sun suggests that we should not all be scared of a Stephen Harper government, giving a prediction of 128 Conservative seats to the Liberals 116, with the Bloc at 43, the NDP at 20 and the Green at 1. For Fisher he feels that Harper has reinvigorated Canadian politics and despite the Liberals best attempts at painting him as an evil force, the anger at the Liberals will win out in many cases. His last line a most telling explanation from the long time observer of the Hill and its press corps. Harper's ascension may test us much like the rise of Pierre Trudea in 1968, the flashpoint of a Harper government should cause Canadians to get more involved in their country. Perhaps not the worst thing that could happen to us.

The Sun's Greg Weston continues on with the disappointing news for the Martin forces in Quebec. Having spent St. Jean Baptiste Day (or Fete Nationale for the ready to leave set) Weston reports on a lacklustre embrace of Martin as he travelled the safest of the safe seats in Quebec. And while Martin has according to Weston finally become a Political animal, it may be too late to do him any good. The campaign in Quebec possibly proving, that the curse of Jean Chretien will be haunting him to his political grave. Weston follows up that with a final exploration of the wind down of the Martin campaign and as he says the desperation of the Prime Ministers’ whirl wind final day. A day of frantic travel, which found Martin courting the Green party vote for salvation. The article takes a look at those confounding poll numbers which fluctuated up and down for each side during the last 36 days. The only poll that counts now the one we embark towards on Monday.