CPC: Those Nightly Phone Calls.

Right up front: I'm supporting MacKay and that won't waver. However, local Conservatives asked me to at least hear out other candidates. I was of two minds about this: I didn't then and I still now don't think it's appropriate for someone to do a meet and greet with a candidate when you're already spoken for. As a result, I did not attend an O'Toole event held in Quebec City.

However, in the interest of fair play, I did listen in on O'Toole and Lewis video or phone calls just to hear them out. I wasn't there to spy with my little eye and evidently did not pass on codes or material to any other candidate. 

Political calls are a strange thing: they go best if there isn't too my fawning or deliberate sucking up, either by other MPs, former party candidates or those with hopes of eventual "prospects". So, please keep that to a minimum for the benefit of viewers and listeners.

Another rookie mistake is, of course, anointing your candidate as the next leader or future PM. That smacks of rank amateurs running the show, at least on these calls.

But the one that blew me away was one hell of a whopper: did I hear correctly that one candidate actually claimed to have two thousand, or thereabouts CPC members on the French-language call? Do I need hearing aids, or perhaps that can't possibly be right?

There again, would any campaign actually be foolish enough to dick around with the numbers on the call and then try to pass it off as Gospel? I hope not. You know, when they start getting proactively defensive and accusatory towards the tail end, you get the sense that desperation has started to sink in. You get the idea that the other guy, or gal, already knows they haven't got the numbers and have no reasonable shot of finally getting there. Given all of that, would you really go even further and inflate your call numbers in Quebec -- or anywhere else -- or am I simply barking up the wrong tree? 

In any event, things are starting to really shake out. I'm not here to make bold predictions in favour of my candidate or anyone else. But I will say that I'm at peace with our campaign. 

So, it's now up to each and every one of you who happen to be members. May you use your best political instincts, your honed judgment and your highest intellect in making your choice. But above all else, ask yourselves who can win -- and then go with that person as your first choice.