Harper has been able to make himself more or less impervious to the attack that we have seen to this point and has been able to defuse the notion that winning is somehow going to be horrendous for the nation. |
If I was Harper right now, I'd go right into Quebec and hold big rallies. Big balloons and marching bands and just feel-good stuff. |
People are voting for Conservatives in greater numbers, but it's not translating into Conservative seats. |
People who are in the middle, who think that it's time for a change, they're having a very hard time getting a personal feeling for Stephen Harper. There's no sense of who he is and therefore no attraction. |
The debilitating effect of the cabinet appointment fiasco is clearly nowhere as large as the cognoscenti would suggest. |
The temptation to defeat the government will be overwhelming. They know that when this issue fades, their fortunes fade with it, so sooner is better than later. |
They're not hysterical about this at all. |
This much change in this period of time -- especially given how little we've seen previously -- suggests there have probably been a lot of conversations over Christmas dinner. Something is going on: some form of intellectualizing or rumination. |
This particular appointment seems to blunt and mute the opposition where it's most pronounced, which is in the province of Quebec. |