Could this be it? The first major gaffe in the masterful Tory campaign that has brought them to the place in the polls that they were on 12 December 2005?

"I do think it's important to point out that Mr. Mulroney received a lot of criticism and a lot of focus for the fact that a large number of ministers had to resign because of scandal. But the truth of the matter was that Mr. Mulroney did not tolerate scandal in his government." Mr. Harper said his approach to scandal allegations would fall somewhere between Mr. Mulroney's and Mr. Chrétien's and that he would be aided by a stronger and more independent ethics commissioner.

That looks like a positive reference to Mulroney to me and as far as I can tell there is a cultural imperative now to only make positive references to Mulroney preceeded by the word "Ben" and even that has its limits though perhaps of another sort. Will the polls shift dramatically so that the Tories go back to 30% from 31%?!?!

It is odd that we don't move on in Canada, you know. Folks yap about Trudeaupia as some sort of, you know, really really funny joke that you can repeat twice a day with your pals. Other folk place devils horns on old Bri. Maybe it is a lack of leadership, a lack of real event on the national scene, over the last ten years that makes us look back with more hostility than we otherwise would at the previous era even if both the Grits and Tories back then racked up the debt that I, the proverbial child of the time, am now left paying off. Remember that? There was always some guy saying in 1974 and 1987 "if you do that, we will be leaving this mess for our children to pay off!" See me? Child. Paying.