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okay. assuming the US doesnt declare martial law on election day in canada october 14th on account of a giant craft appearing in the sky! or maybe just iran
this is how i see the 2008 campaign.

of the five major parties running, the only left wing people's party are the new democrats. the bloc queb are a conservative one issue party. the conservative party are pretty much the american GOP (2008 budget featured 50 billion dollars in corporate tax cuts), the liberals are a joke and voted for the conservative budget, when they could have triggered an election via no confidence, really would not have been petty of them, 50 billion dollars goes a long way to say, helping the poor..

many people are confused and assume that because the green party have a progressive environmental platform and a cool flower logo that they are somehow liberal socialist or 'left wing'. the reality is that they do have social policy in the form of extended mat/paternity leave, a comprehensive health platform, and opposition to the spp (nafta etc). the problem is the massive imbalance of the platform, the clear emphasis being on the environment, but the social reforms proposed are an incomplete and weak distillation of ndp policy.

everything the green party is running on is exceeded and encompassed by the ndp platform. jack layton and co have actually been passing awesome environmental legislation for years (kyoto-plus c-377, clean air and climate change act etc). check out the website now for the comprehensive socialist legislation history and in the coming weeks for the fresh policy, im not going type it all here, but briefly

ndp: anti-war, anti-poverty, pro environment, will lower tuition, serious healthcare system improvement, fair trade > free trade, anti-nafta/spp/nau, for workers rights, proposing immigration reform (the system right now is actually hostile), against exploitative advertising, proposing nutrition/health programs for children, proposing native rights legislation, ETC

to people who claim theres no 'real options' in this election, i say youre not paying attention. because of barack obama's lofty speeches and bringing people to tears etc, 'leadership' is actually being discussed as a serious campaign issue in canada.. okay, proof of laytons leadership capability can be seen when he rewrote the 2005 liberal budget because a. the liberal draft was deceitful and included 4.6 billion in corporate tax cuts (read: hidden agenda) and b. parliament was getting nowhere because of the conservative/bloc were trying to trigger an election by being stubborn and blocking the budget, with no constructive input or negotiation. it was embarrassing for our government and country, good thing the world media doesnt really pay attention to us.. but the ndp were adult amidst childish behaviour, 'working with the liberals' was the headline, but really jack laytons office rewrote the whole thing and the liberals said 'more war money' so the national defence budget was increased from 2004's figure by a tiny 500 million. i dont understand the judgment against layton, is it the moustache? does that bother people enough to not consider him a good option?

im really sorry to trash the green party, i respect were they stand on the issues. elizabeth may gave a pretty good speech today, and its indicative of her commitment to the social better, or maybe just to the feminist vote, that she is running a pro-choice platform when she herself is pro-life. but even this election when they are at their historical peak, the greens are doing more harm to the environment than good, by running with their ndp platform to campaign against the actual new democrats who would otherwise stand a greater chance this election than they may ever have. the irony is too much.
obviously individual mps can only handle so much legislation on their own, but for the green agenda to be pushed, they really only need a few mps to pump their bills through, and they will use whatever seats (at least elizabeth may in central nova) they get to maximum effect. its not like the ndp would vote differently than the green party on any issue, realistically, but the fact is that ////the only vote the green party draws on is the ndp's, which really weakens any chance canada has of becoming a progressive nation and functioning at full potential. so canadas left vote has been divided, but the new CAW union leader Ken Lewenza will hopefully grant the ndp the caw vote which would be an amazing leg up.

meanwhile mainstream voters who have been voting with their parents for decades or who enjoy remaining 'loyal' to the same party are totally confused because stephen harper is obviously a crook and stephane dion has 'bad leadership qualities'. although we will see how much platitude harper can drone in ads that manipulate good natured people who relate to the actors, and how 'strong of a leader' dions campaign will prove him to be in the face of conservative party ads at his expense that appeal to canadas inner twelve year old brat.
my prediction: lowest voter turnout since //september 1898//. but that could be good for the parties whose supporters actually care..