Tom’s take: The best laid plans

Even though the election is a year and a half away, the puck has dropped and a fight has already broken out.

That’s to be expected of course; this is now a very competitive political environment, and, to mix sporting metaphors, there’s not much incentive to play by the Marquess of Queensbury rules.

Before the teams even stepped onto the ice, the Red Team, known locally as the Liberals, committed the game plan to memory: try to show and convince voters you are ready to form government.

The execution would go as follows:

1.Ensure virtually all big policy discussions at the biennial convention are about the economy, and not about those long-cherished multi-billion dollar Liberal national programs.

2.Have Justin Trudeau speak not once, but twice. After all, he’s solely responsible for putting and keeping the Liberals in first place in the polls for almost a year now, and it’s his name that has brought the influx of money and donors — $11 million from 135,000 people last year.

3. Showcase retired Lt-Gen Andrew Leslie, a star recruit, who is planning to run for the Liberals in the next election.

So that was the strategy they thought would let them win at least the first period.

And that’s when the gloves came off.

Leslie is controversial in every sense of the word. He crossed no man’s land from military service to politics, a rare — and some might say a foolhardy — move. But more recently he became known as the guy who moved down the street at a cost of $72,000 in taxpayer money.

The Conservatives threw the first punch in that fight, apparently shocked and appalled Leslie would follow the policy administered by the Conservatives.

So Leslie swung back, saying well yeah, he did. Then he went on the attack during his convention speech, hinting broadly, but coyly, that the Conservatives had wooed him to run for them.

Bam.

Moments later, in the midst of a chaotic news conference with Leslie, the Conservatives sent an email to a reporter saying yeah, well we sort of did, but it was Leslie who had started the doomed romance.

Leslie hit back and reluctantly confessed that, well yeah, maybe he did start it — but he said he ended it too, by leaving them for the Liberals.

With nothing left from the Conservatives, the fight ended. Minor penalties to the Conservatives and Leslie, and a game misconduct to the dolt who decided to hold the Leslie news conference.

Remember though, there is a lot of time left in this game, and so far both teams have only put out their fourth lines.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see this go into overtime.