Ottawa

2012 came a little early this year

So apparently we’re going to have an election. Paul Wells has your primer.

So apparently we’re going to have an election. Here’s your primer.

In the past seven weeks we have run substantial new profiles of three of the national party leaders. John Geddes and I produced a very long retrospective of Stephen Harper’s years in power here. I explained why Michael Ignatieff had actually become eager to face the electorate here. John profiled Jack Layton, posing a question about the New Democrat’s nerve that has since been answered, here.

I have remarked for more than two years on Stephen Harper’s eagerness to frame this election as a choice between a Conservative majority and an opposition coalition. Even today, the Conservatives were circulating talking points saying the Liberals, NDP and Bloc have “united once again as a Coalition.” My best attempt to explain this choice by Harper appeared six months ago here.

Andrew Coyne got very angry at the Conservatives, here. Then he got very angry at the Liberals, here. He proposed a new political party here.

I like to be surprised by the way a campaign begins. I haven’t the faintest idea how this one will end. We’ll have some fun.

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