Just a sleep deprived slip up or something more telling?
This morning in Oshawa, NDP Leader Jack Layton didn't start off his speech by saying "I'm Jack Layton and I am running to be your prime minister."
The bald-faced statement has been the brunt of many jokes, given that he leads a fourth-place party that rarely gets above 19 per cent on election night. Try as they may, reporters covering the campaign have not been able to shake him off script. Layton has insisted that to say otherwise would be "defeatest" at a time when voters are looking for an alternative to the "same old, same old" parties.
But then it happened at the campaign office for Oshawa NDP candidate Mike Shieds: no mention of being the next prime minister. Stand by for more.
UPDATE: Layton was back on message a few hours later in Etobicoke where he assured the gathered crowd he was running to be prime minister.
This is the first election where the pollsters agree that the NDP could form a government if the undecided vote went NDP. The spread between the 3 major Partys is only about 10% so claiming that Layton cannot become PM is false, and we will only know the outcome on Tuesday evening...
Posted by: Duncan | October 13, 2008 at 01:42 PM