The Globe looks optimistically to Brad Wall.
Mr. Wall’s speeches are like a gateway drug. At first, you don’t give this blond-haired, blue-eyed Mennonite much chance. With his unlined face, funky Armani eyeglasses (which his aides think may be “too out there”) and urban-chic haircut, he looks too young, too fresh, not nearly grizzled enough to hold a crowd. Then comes the zinger. On the rubber-chicken circuit these days, he likes to open with a joke about a controversial Regina jail break – “Greetings from the province of Saskatchewan … where we are becoming increasingly famous for capturing carbon and releasing prisoners” – or the peculiar domestic conversations he’s been having of late – “Honey, can you turn off the vacuum, the Prime Minister is going to be calling. … So I put down the vacuum.”