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afternoon briefing

Party workers plaster the front of Ottawa's Government Conference Centre with signs in advance of the federal leaders debate on April 12, 2011.

1. Orange tide. Early Tuesday morning, before the sun had risen and before Ottawa had really woken up, members of the campaign team of Mauril Belanger, the Liberal candidate for the riding of Ottawa-Vanier, were staking signs outside the former train station where the party leaders' debates will be held.

By noon, the sidewalk around the building, at the corner of one of the city's busiest intersections, was a sea of campaign signs for candidates of all stripes representing many Ottawa ridings.

The New Democrats, though, had clearly won the war. There was far more orange on display than red or blue. And there were more Liberal signs than Conservative signs - the closest Conservative-held ridings are outskirts of town which may explain their relatively small showing.

Paul Dewar, the New Democrat who represents Ottawa Centre, had more signs than anyone else. And there were plenty of Jack Layton signs on display but not many featuring the other leaders.

2. In the interregnum. So what does a political party leader do after the English debate is over and before the French debate?

Most will be taking time to prepare for the next round.

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff, for instance, does not have any public events planned for Tuesday and Wednesday, besides the debates. He is expected to campaign in and around Ottawa on Thursday before taking off again in the Liberal campaign plane Friday.

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper is also taking the hours prior to Wednesday's debate to get in shape for the French match that evening. His plane leaves for parts unknown on Thursday morning.

But NDP Leader Jack Layton will hold a breakfast event on Wednesday morning. His campaign tour resumes in Montreal.

3. Bypassing broadcasters. Green Party Leader Elizabeth May has been shut out of the debate by a consortium of broadcasters but she is still making sure that her views will be heard.

Ms. May - who is spending much of the campaign in the B.C. riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands, where she is trying to unseat Conservative cabinet minister Gary Lunn - will participate in the federal debates by a live on-line chat hosted by the Vancouver Sun.

The Green Leader will also hold a press conference following the debate, which will be streamed live on her party's website.

4. 'Fat' in the system? A national union of federal bureaucrats says it hopes the political party leaders will find time during the debates to highlight the importance of the work they do for Canadians.

Public servants' eyebrows rose last week when the Conservative Leader Stephen Harper said a government led by him would find billions of dollars to finance their platform by finding efficiencies and "getting the fat out of the system."

The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada is worried that its members are the "fat" to which Mr. Harper was referring.

The Tory Leader "is making light of important public services and regulations that Canadians depend on." Gary Corbett, the union's president, said Wednesday in a release.

"The federal government has already targeted $11-billion in cuts over the past five years," said Mr. Corbett. "It's beyond belief that additional cuts of up to 10 per cent in real terms can be made without doing serious and irreparable harm to public services."

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