Liberals Gain One, Liberals Lose One: Day 5

And they're finally off! In what was one of the most bizarre campaign days in a generation (and that's saying a lot!), an NDP candidate in London quit to endorse the Liberals, a move that saved the coalition issue from being otherwise taken off the table today. This would have been a banner day for the main opposition party, except that their former by-election candidate and party stalwart in Vaughn publicly endorsed Tory MP Julian Fantino later today, marking a second defection. The headlines responded in kind and the two items will be making the newspaper front sections tomorrow morning.

The other major item today revolved around the leaders' debate, Green leader Elizabeth May's participation and Prime Minister Harper's open challenge to a one-on-one debate with Liberal leader Ignatieff. This will obviously be a game changer down the road, either if Ms. May gets an invitation that many did not expect her to receive again, or if there is a separate debate between the two poll-leading party leaders.

The Tories did get stuck with another ex-staffer-who-is-being-investigated-working-on-their-campaign story today, but as the headlines aren't keeping up with the fact that there was a first one, it is unlikely that this will stick to the Conservatives for now.

Summary: a more exciting day, but still not any major shifts in momentum that would see a different result.

Day 4 Winner: The Conservatives