In any election there are usually hard cores of supporters that will show up to do the grunt work of campaigns – the door knocking, the phoning, the sign placing and so many other tasks.   When a campaign is going well, more peripherally engaged people begin to show up at the campaign office.  It’s not easy to knock on someone’s door or phone a stranger.  If people believe they will not get a bad reception, they are more likely to volunteer.  Conversely, while a core suporter can withstand negative responses, more marginally engaged people are likely to find it difficult to do so.

Terence Young’s campaign is having good days.  Volunteers are plentiful but yet all feel needed as this race is still tight. 

Over at Bonnie Brown’s campaign, they may feel they are reliving the nightmare last days of ‘Asphalt Annie’ Mullvales’s doomed PC campaign in 1993.  Volunteers are becoming fewer as the the SS Dion takes on water dragging down Liberal candidares in the process.  Bonnie Brown is unlikely to survive the SS Dion shipwreck.

The anti Harper sentiment, although shrinking, is likely to find expression in NDP and Green support according to what non CPC supporters are saying. 

The Blue wave had swept into Oakville in 2006 but some last minute Liberal scare tactics caused it to retreat somewhat from the Mississauga border.  There will likely not be a repeat of the same phenomenon this time. 

Barring a knockout blow of Harper by Dion in the English language debate, the deal is done.  Terence Young will be elected MP for Oakville on October 14, 2008.  How many want to bet on such an event?  Not too many, I think.

Up in Halton, the CPC candidate is gaining thanks to blunders by Liberal Garth Turner caught on CPAC.  The Dion Train Wreck is also threatening to include Garth in the mangled wreckage soon to result from Dion’s leadership.  Initial resentment against Lisa Raitt’s appointment as CPC candidate is fading among previously upset CPC supporters as the prospect of getting rid of Turner grows stronger.