There's something as artificial as a Hollywood musical about a campaign photo op. I watched Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff step from his tour bus and walk through a congested block of Toronto's Chinatown this week: "Who will buy this wonderful morning? …" I think he sold it. He looked happy and relaxed.
There were dozens of journalists accosting passersby, who mostly dodged them like reluctant dance partners. But when absolutely cornered, when their backs were up against other journalists' backs, as seemed to be happening, the passersby occasionally gave reluctant answers to a predictable question: "Who are you planning to vote for in the election?"
"So you guys don't want her representing you?" a woman with a microphone asked a man - in reference, I assume, to local Liberal candidate Christine Innes. As if Random Asian Man spoke for the entire riding, currently held by the New Democratic Party's Olivia Chow.
Pictures were taken, hands were shaken and then, as scheduled, Mr. Ignatieff got back in the bus and left, as though parking were really that easy in Chinatown.
It was a kind of a flash-news factory on a street corner, and scenes like it are being played out across the country. They're surreal. Kind of fun, and only a spoilsport (no matter how much he disliked the genre) would shout out, "How do they all know the words!?" during a musical.
Later in the week, Stephen Harper sang Imagine with 10-year-old YouTube sensation Maria Aragon - a musical of a musical, in a way - and the rather sweet video made the rounds. It was perhaps the highlight of the Prime Minister's campaign week.
Entering into the spirit of an election campaign is a test of a politician, and for the most part Mr. Harper has been terse and distant with the press - limiting, without explanation, the number of questions he can be asked at his few press conferences to five. As CBC political journalist Kady O'Malley put it on Twitter this week: "So far, Harper isn't so much campaigning as acting like a guy who's locked out of his office."
Mr. Harper's first major promise, the tax break at the restaurant at the end of the universe known as Family Tax Cut, suggests that he wasn't expecting an election at this time. The idea behind the Family Tax Cut is that two parents with dependent children (these would be "families") would be allowed to split some of their income for tax purposes, but only once the deficit has been paid off.
To me, the promise hints that these families have somehow recklessly run up the nation's deficit with their wild, child-rearing ways and, if they behave better from now on, they can reasonably hope for a tax break. Thanks, Dad.
It's difficult to get really excited about a promise that is set to detonate in the future, when we have moving sidewalks and dinner is a pill and there's no deficit - I mean, when the government, the same one that would have to spend $2.5-billion on this plan, tells us we have no deficit.
Obviously income spitting doesn't help single parents. It benefits the wealthy more than the poor and it encourages the lowest-paid partner (statistically more likely to be the woman) to leave the work force. So I wouldn't get too excited. The existing child tax benefit seems a fairer way to help, and I'd be okay with renaming it the Family Tax Family Benefit for Families should any government choose this route.
NDP Leader Jack Layton, on the other hand, came out swinging - against high interest rates on credit cards. He sees a bright, shiny future in which there are caps on those interest rates! Can you imagine it? His speech was like "I have a dream," if that dream had been about adjusting fees at banks.
Does anyone remember back in 2007, when Mr. Layton was really angry about the service charges at bank machines? When did the NDP become the WWRYMNP, the We Will Rid You of Minor Nuisances Party? Does the NDP seriously believe that banks won't find a way to get back on our lawns, once Jack has sent them packing?
These are banks, NDP. At what point do you think they're going to get sheepish about making money and throw in the towel? "Oh, $1.50 at the bank machine, 15 per cent on a MasterCard - we are so busted. Nationalize us."
The Liberals, meanwhile, announced a plan to help fund postsecondary education, designed to help families other than the Jetsons, and they don't have a polling lead around which to circle their wagons. They're clearly not waiting the clock out on this one. I'm not sure what it'll get them, but it makes them fun to watch. Week 1: Liberals.