Ottawa

Si vous étiez prémier ministre aujourd’hui, qu’est-ce que vous auriez fait à propos de l’économie que M. Harper n’a pas fait?

Am I close? I think I’m close. Help me out, mes Sans-Encre!

I dearly wish this were less of an issue. I kind of wish somebody — anybody? Bueller? — had tried to start an interesting conversation about, say, Harper’s $990-billion defence plan. I literally haven’t heard a word about that during this campaign.

But I do think whatever charm Dion’s 30-day plan has, if any, depends on the fact that he’s not prime minister yet. And it was more effective last week, when the prime minister hadn’t done much to respond to the crisis, than it is this week, when he’s done more. And I’m surprised nobody’s noticed that what really made Dion trip up is that he said “30-50,” the incomprehensible title of his anti-poverty plan, when he meant to say “30-day plan,” the rather plain title of his 30-day plan. And I think some of that did play in yesterday’s ATV incident, along with Dion’s perfectly understandable confusion over the question.

Incidentally Harper didn’t understand a bunch of questions in the 2004 French leaders’ debate. At times it was a bit hard to watch.

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