First Impressions

Some initial impressions of the party leaders after three days of the election.

Michael Ignatieff is looking like Jean Chretien in the sense that he seems to be enjoying himself.  I am not saying he has the political smarts of Mr. Chretien or anything but one thing I noticed about Mr. Chretien during his three campaigns is he always seemed to be having fun regardless of the daily vagaries of them.  The same seems to be true of Mr. Ignatieff.  He looks like he is having fun.

Stephen Harper does not look like he is having fun.  He has always been a gloomy individual having to work really hard to appear cheerful and friendly.  So far he has not been totally successful in that goal and on top of that he is channelling Paul Martin.  The Liberals have a "hidden agenda"?  Canadians have been there and done that.

Jack Layton has surprised me so far.  For the first time in longer than I can remember he has actually made the Conservatives a target of his campaign as opposed to the Liberals.  It seemed during the 2008 campaign Mr. Layton talked more about the Liberals than the Conservatives.  The past three days have been much different.  I am certain as things go forward he will change his focus but it is refreshing to see the NDP focus on the governing party for a change.

Gilles Duceppe also surprised me with his focus on Stephen Harper.  Mind you the Bloc has a better chance of taking away the few Conservative seats in Quebec than the Liberal seats.  As well, since the Conservatives tend to target the same voters as the Bloc they are a bigger threat to the Bloc than the Liberals right now. 

Lizzy May has been invisible which is not surprising considering the environment is not front and centre in this campaign.  She will not be included in the debates this time and there will not be a backlash to that fact either.