Sign Language

      An early morning stroll through the neighbourhood-- okay, I was off to get cigarettes, so sue me-- brought me to a peculiar realization, that nowhere in my neck of the woods if there to be found a sign for the Liberal candidate. It's almost entirely NDP signs with the odd Conservative one (I'd say the NDP signs outnumber the Conservative signs 6 to 1, maybe 7 to 1), but not a Liberal one in sight, not even in front of the Main Street Mom-and-Pop shops, not even on the lawns of the people in the neighbourhood most adamantly Liberal in the past. Not a one. Considering this is Sheila Copps' old stomping-ground, this is truly bizarre. I'm sure there are signs in other places, particularly in Stoney Creek, but not here. Four blocks to the west of my house, the electoral boundary shifts, where Stan Keyes is running for the Liberals. He's not faring any better there, either, if the signs are any indication. I wonder how many people in this area are planning on voting Liberal but are deciding this time not to put signs out. At least in this area, it looks like a Liberal wasteland, the typical red and whites gone underground like Catholics in the old Soviet Union. I knew there was anger about-- hey, who didn't?-- but who knew it was this bad? I wonder if the Liberals have decided just not to bother, given the trouncing they got in the recent provincial by-election to replace the deceased Dominic Agostino, when they no doubt saw the anger with the provincial Liberals played out before the budget came down. I've got to admit, I've never seen it like this before, ever. The Liberals aren't just falling in the polls: they've quite literally become, it seems, personae non grata. The next four weeks are going to be really interesting. There's desperation in the air, and everyone can smell it.

      Addendum: Did a little scan through the archives here. Imagine what I found. See also these astonishingly prescient remarks on Dalton McSquinty. I can't say I've been right about everything (here's a good case in point), but I'm feeling a little I told ya so-ish right now, however distasteful it may be to be so. ;-)