Staying visible

Maclean's kicks off the campaign with John Geddes' interesting piece on Jack Layton. And Geddes' analysis of Layton's job at this point seems entirely accurate:

It's a highly unusual position for an opposition leader entering a campaign: Layton is running on his record. Yet it might be his knack for courting media attention -- not the concrete budget measures he now has under his belt -- that ends up mattering most. In what's shaping up as a nasty, negative-ad-fuelled struggle between the Liberals and Conservatives, the NDP's biggest worry is getting muscled off the main stage. Already in last week's clash between Martin and Harper over the Tory leader's charge that the sponsorship affair linked Liberals to organized crime, Layton was on the sidelines. He'll need all his wiles to claim a share of the spotlight over the next few weeks.

All too true. Hopefully Layton got the NDP campaign off to a good start with the press yesterday by being the sole national leader willing to face questions in the immediate aftermath of the non-confidence vote. But there's only going to be so much limelight to go around for the next couple of months...and it'll take every trick in Layton's book (and every contact on his BlackBerry) to make sure that the NDP is able to get anything close to its share.