When "foreign workers" story broke I sent a note to a friend of mine on the campaign and said "your team just blew it." It sounded like an angry old white guy's campaign reminiscent of some of the Reform Party campaigns of the 1990s.

The per-vote subsidy guarantees that, at the very least, when you vote for a party, they would get some support for later campaigning, even if they didn't win the seat. It's the only proportional part of our voting system and it means you could not say your vote didn't count.

Conservative Member of Parliament Brad Trost created a bit of a stir this week when he publicly criticized a decision of his own government. What made his comments so newsworthy was the rarity of the occasion as it is most unusual for Conservative MPs to speak publicly against any government decision.

The media couldn't even keep its eyes open during the Manitoba election campaign, only occasionally looking below the surface of the promises and policies. Then again, the resurrected NHL Winnipeg Jets were beginning their pre-season games and the Bombers were in first place. The media can only do so much.

When asked, should he become premier, if he'd ban the practice of Muslim Imams coming to some public schools to conduct prayer meetings and relegating girls to the back of the room and not to mix with the boys, Hudak said no one was going to discriminate against his daughter (which wasn't the issue) and that he trusted school principals to do the right thing (again, not the issue). Why couldn't he say he opposed such discrimination, and promise to have his education minister take action if Conservatives form the government? Sharia law, anyone? His faith that principals would not be intimidated or pressured by minority groups or human rights zealots verged on the naïve... or cynical.

Canadians remember the discussion that Jack Layton initiated on improving decorum and civility in the House. The question now becomes, how are the honourable members living up to their noble words?

If the evidence from independent non-partisan groups have concluded that the Harper government's human smuggling legislation is really not about curtailing human smuggling, what is the real political rationale for it? It is not unreasonable to suspect the answer is that refugees are being exploited for permanent political gain

Simply put, voters just don't know Tim Hudak. If you don't assign yourself a role in the play, you leave the door open for others to assign one for you. Liberals are defining the PC leader as a Tea Party-loving, immigrant-hating, right-wing extremist, who will gut our health care and shut down our public schools.

John Duffy (L): As the Canadian Press reported, Ms. Horwath is "standing behind a candidate who is coming under fire from the other parties for comments he made about religion and Nazis." We don't know how much quality control went into the NDP's candidate selection process, but one imagines we're going to find out in the days ahead.

Jason Lietaer (PC): A lot is still up for grabs in this election: Will the NDP be able to match the growth seen in the last three weeks of the federal campaign? Will Dalton McGuinty begin to beat back a prospective vote-stealing NDP surge? The pre-game is ending. Now the real match begins.

Heather Fraser (NDP): The Progressive Conservatives and the Liberals have been engaged in a war of words over the flawed Liberal proposal for a new Ontarian tax credit. The Liberals clearly launched a platform plank they knew would goad the Tories into a reaction. And the Tories' predictable reaction serves only to divide people and communities by setting Ontarians against their neighbours.

I suppose crying over Jack's death makes me a member of what Christie Blatchford called "the mourning chaff;" those who make a spectacle out of a death they weren't affected by. I dislike this idea of a mourning hierarchy. This isn't a game of Who's the Saddest. This idea undermines how he affected Canadians.