Unleashed

There may be another important internal factor facing the Cons based on Stephen Harper's talk about stepping down, as it also figures to have loosened the reins on current party figures who can hope to avoid retribution if they can hang on longer than Harper. And Con MP Luc Harvey offered a classic example of why Harper has used his command over the party to keep Cons from doing anything in public:

A Conservative MP crashed a Bloc Québécois campaign event in Quebec City today, haranguing Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe who was shaking hands and meeting voters at a local market.

Conservative candidate Luc Harvey narrowly won by 231 votes in the riding of Louis-Hébert in 2006, and is fighting for his political life in the face of polls that predict a Bloc victory in his riding in Tuesday's election.

As Mr. Duceppe talked to farmers and clients at the Marché Public de Sainte-Foy, Mr. Harvey walked up from behind and asked Mr. Duceppe to say what he has accomplished since his election in 1990.

“Tell us about your record,” Mr. Harvey shouted.

Mr. Duceppe refused to enter into a discussion as Mr. Harvey continued to pester him. After a few seconds of loud exchanges, Mr. Duceppe called Mr. Harvey an “imbecile” and asked his RCMP detail to “move him over,” before exiting the scene and entering his campaign bus.

Visibly pumped after the brief encounter, Mr. Harvey told reporters said he saw the Bloc caravan at the market and decided to stop by.

“I'm in my riding here. This is the riding of Louis-Hébert, and this is Luc Harvey's riding,” he said. “Next time we ask him to defend his record, I hope he won't say that all Quebeckers are imbeciles.”

Now, it's understandable to a point why Harvey would feel the need to change the direction of the race by any means necessary. Having already had his likelihood of re-election already damaged - possibly irreparably - by the Cons' central command, Harvey almost certainly needed to try to shake things up somehow. And the possibility that Harper might be gone soon surely raised at least some possibility that Harvey wouldn't face retribution for doing so.

But it's telling about the Cons' attack-only mentality that Harvey's preferred means of trying to change the race's momentum involved crashing another party's event, relishing the fact that he'd done so, and then lying to the media about what happened. And there's no other way to read Hervey's attempt to pretend that Duceppe's comment about him personally was somehow aimed at "all Quebeckers".

With so little time left in the race, Harvey's stunt figures to wind up hurting not only his own hopes of holding his seat, but also the Cons' chances of salvaging other seats which are now slipping out of their hands. And the fact that he's stuck with a caucus made up of the likes of Harvey and so many other Cons who can't be let out without adult supervision might explain why Harper is so willing to gamble his leadership on the election result.