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Jack Layton has trouble hiding his joy.
He probably looks in the mirror every morning and says to his reflection: “Why me, O Lord, why me?”
For 20 years he’s dreamed of this day.
He’s not saying anything different than he’s said in the previous 20 years. Same old Jack, same old NDP.
Same platform – health is No. 1. Working for the little guy, the widow and the orphan. Standard NDP policy.
But this time they are listening, and Layton keeps going up in the polls, a couple of percentage points a week.
Total strangers are running up to him in Québec.
They call him “Monsieur Clayton” and tell him they’ve never voted NDP before, but this time they’ll vote for him.
He hobbles around with a cane, with his bad hip, fighting prostrate cancer. We worried he might not finish the campaign. Now we worry if his opponents will finish the campaign.
This week two more polls – CROP and EKOS both put him in second place in Quebec, moving up on the Bloc.
Hey, whatever happened to Stephen Harper? Wasn’t Harper going to sweep Quebec this time?
Today Angus Reid has NDP in second place, tied with the sliding Liberals at 25 % behind the Harper Conservatives who are standing still at 36% and wondering what’s happening in Quebec.
The NDP has never had it this good – the highest it’s ever been in Quebec.
And more good polling news. Fully 36% of respondents on this poll say they have a better opinion of Layton since the campaign began. Layton has a better opinion of them too.
Harper, who wants to be “Majority Man” this year, has only 33% thinking better of him, and Michael Ignatieff only 24%.
Layton is so pleased by the results that he packs his bags and heads off to Quebec City to bask in the warm glow of all that approval.
This election could turn out a lot different than it began.
