On endorsements

Like their personal counterparts, I'd generally classify newspaper endorsements as relatively inconsequential except to the extent they differ substantially from what one would expect. Which means that while the predictable effort by most of the corporate media to circle the wagons around the Harper Cons doesn't mean much, the Star's endorsement of the NDP is the one worth taking more seriously:

The New Democrats have been reinvigorated under the leadership of Jack Layton. After Monday, they may well challenge the Liberals as the principal national standard-bearer for the roughly two voters in three who disagree fundamentally with the course charted by the Harper Conservatives. Progressive voters should give them their support on Monday.
...
New Democrats have shown at the provincial level that once in office they can square their social conscience with fiscal responsibility. They are the party of Tommy Douglas, Allan Blakeney and Roy Romanow — pragmatists with a vision and a heart. Now that a much more significant role beckons at the federal level they must accept the challenge of developing that approach nationally as well.
...
Elections are about the future, and the Liberals have not made a persuasive case for themselves as the alternative in 2011.

Fortunately, this time there is a real choice. Voters who believe Canada should aspire to something greater than the crabbed, narrow vision offered by the Harper Conservatives should look to Jack Layton and the New Democrats on Monday.