Canadian Liberal's Handgun Ban Having No Effect on Election

Canadian Liberals haven't been able to demonize Conservatives. Let's hope that this continues.

. . . . Since neither Harper nor his candidates seem to be digging their own graves, the Liberals have repeatedly tried to hand them shovels. But whereas the Tories would have fallen right into Liberal traps in the past, they've stepped neatly around them.

The Liberals' proposed handgun ban was a prime example. Clearly, they were hoping that Harper would align himself with gun owners, ranting about property rights and alienating centrist voters. Instead, he took issue only with the meaninglessness of the Liberal pledge, not with the notion of restricting handguns -- depriving the Liberals of the wedge issue they were seeking. . . .

Their more subtle attempts at derailing Harper having gone nowhere, the Liberals have wasted little time getting more brazen. Last week, they started digging up Harper speeches from eight years ago, while John Duffy used his space on this page to revive the old claims about a secret agenda on everything from Iraq to abortion. Now, apparent drafts of Liberal attack ads leaked yesterday suggest they intend to further ramp up the rhetoric in the campaign's second half -- particularly by claiming Harper is in bed with separatists.

Barring the Conservative campaign getting a lot clumsier, it's hard to imagine the strategy paying off. With Harper much harder to paint as "scary" than he once was, the Liberals look like they're crying wolf one too many times. . . .

One unrelated aside should be made. I am not sure what meaning the national polls have this time since the Bloc is going to take Quebec. Who is the largest party depends solely on who gets the most votes in the rest of Canada.