On starting points

John raises what looks to be one of the stronger concerns with the prospect of a coalition government - namely, the question of who really wants to be in power at a time when the economy is in such dire straits. But it's worth noting that to the extent a coalition will be judged on how the economy performs on its watch, much of the danger can be alleviated if the opposition parties remind Canadians of where we are already.

Simply put, the situation absent a move to a coalition government includes:
- an economy headed into recession;
- a budget headed into deficit by all reasonable projections (and even by Deficit Jim's cooked books absent heavy cuts and sell-offs); and
- a government which can't be bothered to deal with either of the other problems.

While Canadians may still be accustomed to better times from before Harper took office, the reality is that the progress of Canada's economy under a coalition can only be judged against the situation facing it from the beginning - which means fixing problem #3 as the means of helping to deal with the first two.

Of course, that's in direct contrast to the Cons, who can be held accountable for starting with a strong economy and fiscal situation, and dragging the country into its current mess through two and a half years of mismanagement. And as long as the opposition parties keep the relative performance of the two governments contrast front and centre - assisted by what's sure to be a parallel argument south of the border - there shouldn't be much prospect of their already-underrated economic reputation suffering in the meantime.