At 10:45 am on November 29, Paul Martin slinked into Rideau Hall to ask our Governor General to dissolve parliament, forcing an election.
At 11:36 am, yours truly strolled into Cafe Santropol to enjoy a fine pot of organic darjeling tea, forcing lucidity.
Then, out the large bay windows, I saw a man approach the corner, wearing a large, bulky jacket. Cast with anxiety, the man reached into his coat and pulled on a cord — or more specifically, a long plastic tie.
He tore the tie from inside his jacket and proceeded to errect a large, flaming red sign on a lampost, the smug mug of Liberal lackey-cum-cabinet minister Jean Lapierre beaming from the sheet of corrugated plastic.
It has been less than one hour since Martin officially waded into an election campaign, yet a quick glance down the street confirmed my fears, spying the transport minister’s face repeated like a Warhol print gone wrong.
It is day one of the campaign, and the looming omnipresence of plastic portraits and political rhetoric is already making me nauseous. With 55 days of campaigning to come, this Montreal winter will no doubt be much longer and colder than usual.