The events of this week remind us that sometimes in election campaigns the efforts of political parties are constrained by events completely out of their control. The US economy looks like it is heading for a full blown recession, the stock market is in seeming free-fall and the second US Presidential debate is scheduled tonight on Tuesday, October 7. How much might the US debate affect the Canadian election?

Yesterday the Liberal party campaign plane made an unscheduled stop in Montreal. We are told that there was a problem in the Liberal's aging Boeing 737. Thankfully the malfunction was minor and no one was hurt.This should have been the end of it but for the media it was a great stand-in for the entire campaign.