Canada

But it seems that you're saying Mulcair needs to *start* presenting himself as the more reasonable candidate. I hope I'm misinterpreting that. I think he definitely is all those things, which is why I made the point earlier about him getting airtime. If more people heard him speak, I think they'd be swayed.

For example, just yesterday, following the tabling of the, uh, "budget," Mulcair gave a well-considered, reasonable, and relatively progressive response (as did Nathan Cullen, in followup), critically addressing specific items. Trudeau and his finance critic, on the other hand, sounded like college students trying to convince their teacher that they'd read last week's assignment. At one point, I almost expected Trudeau to say, "Well, I was gonna say what he said, but you asked him first." (Yes, I'll admit my biases colour my interpretation. But sometimes it's more fun that way.)

Every time I listen to Mulcair, I am more impressed with his views, his thought processes, his integrity. I read somewhere that he's actually kind of shy, which makes me respect him even more. He made an interesting comment yesterday on CBC, something to the effect that "Canadians are just one election away from getting..." all the reasonable things the NDP proposes. I liked that. It gives me tangible hope. He's not just saying, as the Libs did, that they'll do something different or better but they'll tell us about it later.* He had real responses. (*And in case you didn't hear it, that's almost exactly what Scott Brison said in one of his first interviews on CBC.)

And speaking of the budget -- I heard someone on the radio making fun of the name and offering an alternative name, which I can't recall other than that it was a joke. But if I had to name it, I'd probably call it "Budget 2015: On our way to the USA."