Collective Soul

Across the street and behind a metal barricade, a young man in a bike helmet, holding a pink sign that read “contempt,” was yelling at Conservative delegates as they filed into the giant glass orb that is the Ottawa convention centre. He yelled about the G8 and the $50 million. He yelled about Bev Oda. He yelled about the defeated candidates now in the Senate. He yelled the word “mockery” more than a few times. Most of the delegates ignored him. Some smiled and laughed and waved.

Last night inside a wedding hall in Edwards, Ontario—standing at a lectern in front of decorative vegetables and two Canadian flags—Stephen Harper addressed the faithful. He seemed eager and loose, perhaps more so than one would expect for a man who is, by his own account, beset on all sides. When he was done, someone in the crowd struck up a round of O Canada, which would seem likely to replace that Collective Soul song as the next Conservative campaign theme.