Halfway into the election campaign has anything changed your mind?
The federal election: Halfway into one of the longest campaigns in history, have you been paying attention?
With so many issues in play, and a steady stream of news events, what is important to you? On what will you base your decision?
GUESTS & LINKS
TWITTER & EMAIL
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INTRODUCTION
We're in the mid point of the marathon campaign. The polls continue to show - though shifting daily within certain small ranges - something of an even race. It is a highly energized campaign in all camps. We may assume the various strategists are trying to find some "sweet spot" that will give them a definite edge. This week's three interviews with the leaders provided - if you will - their personal audition tapes: the variances of style, personalities and policy that each of them brings to this campaign.
The Syrian refugee crisis introduced a genuinely new theme - after the month and more of the Duffy trial, which trial itself has functioned as something of a 'surrogate' campaign putting the government on the defensive. The refugee crisis marked a deep shift to the international plane - reawakening, by implication, the debates over C51 - the anti terrorism legislation. There has also been a rash of awkward statements or social media outbursts from individual candidates … for a few days there it seemed all three main parties were dropping, disowning or defended candidates - or workers - the NDP strategist who "dammed" the Pope is one. There were enough to these to go around and the fallout being spread out offered no lever for one party, but black eyes for all.
The campaign is seriously on now. The Liberals have recallibrated - their positions on certain issues - I e the deficit have changed. The NDP are perhaps not as assured as they may have been at the beginning of the campaign … Mulcair's NDP are still historically in a place to which they have not been accustommed; the but feeling that they were out past the Liberals - and things would stay that way has vanished. Mr. Harper and the Tories must be recallibrating too. His interview this week had an interesting air of resignation - more calm than persuasive energy, but there are signals that mood may have passed and the Conservatives may change their approach for the rest of it.
Much has been covered, but there remains much more. The economy while always a concern hasn't been the full highlight it should be. The fall of the oil industry, the layoffs and stalled protects out West and elsewhere probably means that the economy will claim more of a detailed share of time from the parties. The refugee question will also, likely, have shifts and spikes as the great migration currently underway supplied new stories, and as Canadians try to determined which party has - overall - the truly best approach to it
Where are we now? What issues to far have really taken your attention? What moments of the campaign stand out. How do you see the leaders performance so far? What will it take for either party to break out of the rolling tie they are in?
Is this Stephen Harper's last stand? Can the NDP rise, for the first time, to government? Can Justin Trudeau take the Liberals back to government. There is much drama - both on the issues - and on the personalities - in this campaign. Making, for once, the cliché 'most important campaign ever' a genuine and true observation.
The campaign, your thoughts.
I'm Rex Murphy ...on CBC Radio One ...and on Sirius XM, satellite radio channel 169 ...this is Cross Country Checkup.
GUESTS
Raj Ahluwalia
Senior Producer at CBC's Election Unit
Twitter: @rajahluwalia
John Geddes
Ottawa Bureau Chief Macleans Magazine
Twitter: @Geddes28
Darrell Bricker
CEO Ipsos Public Affairs, Co-author of The Big Shift: The Seismic Change In Canadian Politics, Business, And Culture And What It Means For Our Future
Twitter: @darrellbricker
Janice MacKinnon
Former Finance Minister of Saskatchewan, Professor of History and Public Policy at the University of Saskatchewan
Bio (pdf)
LINKS
CBC.ca
- Canada Votes
- Election Pollcast: Half way into the campaign, where do things stand?
- Behind CBC The National's interviews with Canada's federal leaders
- Harper would quit as PM even if party loses by a seat
- Mulcair's Senate pledge could lead to stalemates and standoffs
- Mulcair as PM would end Canada's fight with ISIS
- Trudeau would loosen PMO control, reverse trend started by father
- Trudeau disagrees with dad, agrees with Harper about minority rule
- Jenni Byrne sent back to Ottawa in Conservative campaign shakeup
- Rallying the faithful the secret to Conservative success, by Andrew MacDougall
National Post
- Stephen Harper may need a chance to sit, think and plan if he wants to win, by John Ivison
- Business owners clash with Trudeau for saying wealthy Canadians use small business tax rates to reduce bills
- Elizabeth May counting on a minority government in October to give Greens more power in Parliament
- Federal election 2015
Globe and Mail
- Sixty per cent of Canadians' votes up for grabs, poll suggests
- This campaign is being taken over by events out of Harper's control, Bruce Anderson
- Syrian refugee crisis forces leaders to confront options on the campaign trail
- Mulcair stands by goal to bring 10,000 Syrian refugees to Canada this year
- NDP aims to lock down support with spending after early restraint, by Adam Radwanski
- Canadians don't want a coalition government, Trudeau says
- Election 2015
Maclean's
- For campaign magic, Harper turns to a wizard from Oz, by Laura Payton
- Federal election 2015: When left is right, and the middle is left, by John Geddes
- Red tape and outdated restrictions keep Syrian refugees from moving on, by John Geddes
- Time for the campaign to get serious on economic policy, by John Geddes
- Parties failed to check Twitter: 'It's coming back to bite them'
- Escaping the election cocoon, by Scott Gilmore
- Issues 2015
- Federal Election 2015
Winnipeg Free Press