On rush jobs

I'll avoid making too much of the Cons' machinations around the Toronto-Danforth by-election.

But it does seem worth noting that the announcement comes in advance of the six-month deadline to call the by-election by roughly the two-week gap between the by-election and the NDP leadership convention. And that's a change in pattern from the last Parliament, where Harper consistently moved toward calling by-elections as late as possible.

So why might Harper have changed course? Well, the earlier by-election call and date will throw a couple of curves at the NDP: first by requiring it to divert resources from the leadership campaign to the by-election, and second by making sure that the party's new leader can't point to personal momentum from the by-election results.

That said, any ultimate effect from those factors looks to be minor at best - as there was bound to be some overlap between the leadership campaign and the by-election writ period in any event. And hopefully the NDP will be able to use the publicity offered by the simultaneous by-election and leadership campaign to draw in new participants who can play an important role in both.