I was at event this morning sponsored by the Public Policy Forum which focused, on what else, the election.
Nik Nanos of Nanos Research spoke on many topics related to his election tracking. One item of particular note for me was his sense that his initial tracking from last night suggested that the use of Bob Rae by Mr. Dion yesterday was not helping the Liberal Leader. In fact, having Rae out may have produced a dip in the numbers.
Two thoughts on that.
First, Rae is not a symbol of strong economic management and the voters know that. They must be as perplexed as anybody when Dion has Rae out saying he is on the best team of fiscal managers.
Second, there's the double-edged sword theory. While sometimes it can help to showcase the team, the opposite is also true - it can suggest that you, as a leader, are weak. That is reinforced if you put Rae in the window for economic messaging.
Also: Has anyone else noticed Dion is talking less about the Green Shift? It seems he is trying to move the focus off the carbon tax and subsequently take the target off of him. I guess his teammate Elizabeth May can do the selling for him. I heard one report earlier that suggested she was going to raise the GST.
Wow... Bob Rae, Stephane Dion and Elizabeth May directing national economic policy. That will help us all sleep well at night. None of them would make the cut on CBC's Dragon's Den. They'd even mess up a sensible game of Monopoly.
