As interim official opposition leader Nycole Turmel fights for her political life, the NDP is not commenting at all about Jack Layton's battle with cancer.
Asked for an update on the NDP leader's health status, his chief spokesman Karl Belanger said there was none.
For her part, Ms. Turmel is ubiquitous, giving interviews and appearing on political affairs programs defending herself and declaring her support for federalism. This, after The Globe's Daniel Leblanc revealed she had been a card-carrying member of the Bloc Québécois, only tearing up her membership last January before running in Quebec for the New Democrats.
On CTV's Canada AM Wednesday, Ms. Turmel confirmed that Mr. Layton and the NDP caucus were aware of her BQ membership.
Political observers are assessing the damage from the Turmel controversy, and in some cases believe that the effect on the party's fortunes will be minimal.
Frank Graves, head of the national polling firm EKOS Research, says that his "guess is that this won't be a huge problem for the NDP and Turmel."
"We already knew that the NDP rise was the mirror image of the BQ decline and that their constituencies were highly similar," says Mr. Graves. "The issue of nationalist/sovereigntist sympathies within the NDP in Quebec was already on the table in English Canada where it is more of an exposure."
Mr. Graves notes that compared to Americans, Canadians are "less ideologically committed" and that political parties are viewed with less trust by the public.
"In my limited experience, it is politicians and party workers who consider floor-crossing unpardonable perfidy but this view isn't shared by voters," argues Mr. Graves. "Conservative supporters are much more tenaciously committed to their party so this may be more of an issue for them but it isn't a big issue in other parts of the spectrum."
Rebuilding the Liberals
Michael Ignatieff isn't to blame for the Liberal rout in the election campaign, argues a former Quebec Liberal adviser. In fact, the former Liberal leader ran an "inspired and flawless campaign," Robert Asselin boldly states.
Mr. Asselin, who is with the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa and traveled with Mr. Ignatieff in the spring campaign, suggests that what happened to the Liberals cannot be explained away as a result of a bad or weak leader.
His article on how to fix the Liberal Party -- especially in Quebec -- is in this month's Policy Options magazine. It appeared Tuesday as Bob Rae, the interim Liberal leader, continues his summer tour of the country in an effort to keep the party relevant but also listen for ideas on how to revive it.
Mr. Rae is in Newfoundland and Labrador Wednesday and off to Cape Breton Thursday.
The Liberals were reduced to third-party status in the election; Mr. Ignatieff lost his own seat and resigned as leader the day after the vote.
Mr. Asselin suggests that the party desperately needs to rebuild in the Quebec: "The rejection of the (Liberals) by French-speaking Quebec is particularly problematic," he writes. The last time Quebec really supported the Liberal Party was under Pierre Trudeau in 1980.
For the Liberals to be successful, Mr. Asselin says the party needs to "redefine liberalism" in Quebec and mobilize the younger generation of Quebecers. Finding a leader, who is not regarded as the "messiah" as previous leaders have been, is also key to the party's success. The new leader must be "an individual capable of embodying a certain evolution, renewal and dynamism within the party," writes Mr. Asselin.
The party must also be one of reform, he argues. "One of the strengths of the (Liberals) is that it has never been a party ideologically locked into old dogmas and the challenge today is to remain at the centre," he writes.
Warning that the next election will be "crucial" for the Liberals -- if they blow it they could be reduced to a "fringe party" -- Mr. Asselin says the Grits need to redefine "the foundations of liberalism ... as Tony Blair and Bill Clinton did for their respective political movements and put forward proposals that are not based on ideological dogmas, but on values and ideas within today's challenges."