That was so last week

Brad Lavigne, the NDP’s executive director, last week. "If a leader loses momentum [Monday], they’ll have a hard time gaining it back before the budget gets tabled in February."

Jack Layton, asked about Lavigne’s assessment yesterday. "Well, I think when you look at by-elections, they do have these very unique characteristics. I mean, who would have predicted that the NDP would have gone up in votes in Dauphin? But yet, that is what happened and the Liberals went down. So is there some kind of trend in the west as some have suggested? I don’t really think you can find much of a trend line in these results and you know, we have done our share in by-election victories. We won one, each of the opposition party has won one out of seven since this Parliament started and we are just going to keep at it."