Where Are We?

It's a constant question hollered out in the media filing rooms or on buses and planes when we file by wireless. What city is it? What riding? What time is it? What time is it Eastern Time?
Little wonder. The Conservative leader's campaign tour will have completed clocked 43,990 kilometers by air once he arrives in Calgary tonight, and travelled another 4,850 km by bus, for a total of 48,840 kilometers.
An official said it was the equivalent of travelling around the world one and a quarter times. A Google search shows the circumference of the earth to be 40,075.16 kilometers.

- Tonda MacCharles

Jack's no turkey

It wasn't a sitdown turkey dinner but it was the next best thing.

NDP Leader Jack Layton served up turkey sandwiches complete with cranberry sauce to the media, Mounties and campaign staff made by his son Mike, his daughter Sarah and her husband Hugh Campbell. The three cooked two turkeys and bought pumpkin pies, all of which was thoroughly enjoyed by all on this Thanksgiving Day.

Campaign criss-cross

At the Fredericton airport, two visions - well, two planes anyway - crossed paths.

Just as Conservative leader Stephen Harper's plane arrived on the tarmac for a small airport rally, Liberal leader Stéphane Dion's was taxiing down a runway to take off.

If the war of numbers is anything, both leaders got out crowds of about 100 here today.

Harper's earlier rally saw about 600 boisterous supporters turn out in P.E.I.

Layton running up against reality?

Just a sleep deprived slip up or something more telling?

This morning in Oshawa, NDP Leader Jack Layton didn't start off his speech by saying "I'm Jack Layton and I am running to be your prime minister."

The bald-faced statement has been the brunt of many jokes, given that he leads a fourth-place party that rarely gets above 19 per cent on election night. Try as they may, reporters covering the campaign have not been able to shake him off script. Layton has insisted that to say otherwise would be "defeatest" at a time when voters are looking for an alternative to the "same old, same old" parties.

But then it happened at the campaign office for Oshawa NDP candidate Mike Shieds: no mention of being the next prime minister. Stand by for more.

UPDATE: Layton was back on message a few hours later in Etobicoke where he assured the gathered crowd he was running to be prime minister.

Message Management

When the Conservative leader's tour arrived in Cornwall on a drizzly, dreary Monday morning, a bright and cheery message greeted reporters in the media filing room: 

"Dear Canadian media, please enjoy your stay on PEI."

Coffee and donuts were provided -- A nice touch.

When we returned after Stephen Harper's speech, however, a senior Conservative official had scrawled underneath:

"In a time of global economic uncertainty, only one party and one leader can protect our families and economy."

Which prompted a member of the media entourage to draw an arrow to the first message, and counter-scrawl: "This is an unpaid advertisement not sanctioned by the Conservative party."

It's going to be a long, 21-hour day.

DOWNING TOOLS

The Conservative leader's tour arrived in Charlottetown tonight under a nearly full moon.

Before the final burst of campaigning and a 21-hour day scheduled for Monday, campaign staff, journalist, technicians, and flight crew (minus the Harpers) all sat down at a local restaurant on the waterfront to share a turkey dinner.

Unlike most Canadian families sharing dinner this weekend, however, the whole crew on the Conservative tour have been spending far too much time together some days, and never stop talking politics.

So it was an evening to down tools and toast families and friends far from here. Harper's communications directer Kory Teneycke stepped in as toastmaster.

Finally something we all agreed on.

The folks at Peake's Quay served a hot homecooked meal: turkey, savory dressing, mashed potatos, gravy, carrots, beets, mustard pickles, cranberry sauce, the works.

-Tonda MacCharles

Flexing some muscle

There is always time for exercise, even during an election campaign. During his rust belt tour today NDP Leader Jack Layton pulled over near London, Ont. to make time for reporters to file their stories and for him to hit the gym. A good workout is good for body and soul, they say.

- Richard Brennan

Tittering in Saint-Tite

Many chuckles about the first destination on Conservative leader Stephen Harper's tour today, with the Michel Rivard arts cuts parody having made such an impact in Quebec and on the Youtube campaign.

Cruising in search of votes in la Mauricie region of central Quebec, Harper travels to a brunch today in this small town.

"Did you say tits?" asks a priggish, overbearing government arts panel member in the video.

Television reporters practiced variations of a sign-off from here. Conservative campaign staff wisecracked back: "Huh? Did you say tits?"

Layton finally sits at kitchen table

Finally, NDP Leader Jack Layton has sat at a kitchen table. Of all places it was on the tarmac at Montreal airport. Media members arranged for a kitchen table and four chairs to be set up near the stairs leading to the campaign plane as Layton arrived for the next leg of his journey to Windsor. The figurative kitchen table has been a major part of his campaign to illustrate his interests are that of ordinary Canadians not of the CEOs at the boardroom table.

The kitchen table came complete with tablecloth signed by the media types covering the campaign. Layton loved it - sitting at the table having his photo taken. He kept the tablecloth as a keepsake.

- Richard Brennan

Duceppe finds Justin Trudeau too much like dad

Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe turned his attention on Justin Trudeau this afternoon, saying the young Liberal candidate in the Montreal riding of Papineau will not defend the French language and is too close in thinking to his father, the late Pierre Elliott Trudeau.

"Justin Trudeau represents the past. Vivian Barbot represents the future of the Quebec nation," said Duceppe, referring to the incumbent Bloc candidate and Trudeau's main competition this election.

Duceppe said Trudeau wants to promote bilingualism like his father, instead of defending the French fact in Quebec, leading to the "assimilation of Francophones."

Polls have put Trudeau ahead of Barbot in the working-class riding, which is highly multicultural with a large core of Quebec francophones.

-Andrew Chung