So that's what it was for

Garth Turner points out what looks to be the real reason for Harper's demand for TV time:

Thirty-one minutes after a speech in which the prime minister had used the word “separatists” more often than the word “economy”, people in Halton on the Con list started getting urgent phone calls from Ottawa asking for $500 donations, “to save Canada from the coalition.”

That's right: having nothing at all new to say, Stephen Harper just hijacked Canada's airwaves for a Conservative Party fund-raising drive. So I guess I was half right about trying to grab what he can while he's still clinging to power.