I warned long ago that if Stephen Harper was desperate enough he wouldn't hesitate to set this country on fire.
I knew that when the niqab court decision dropped into his lucky lap, Harper and his Australian hitman Lynton Crosby would use it as a massive wedge issue to try to poison this campaign,
And that's exactly what has happened. It has become the niqab election, or the citizenship election.
Emotion has replaced reason. The fires of hatred are burning bright, and nowhere more than in Quebec.
If you missed last night's French-language debate you can relax because you didn't miss much.
The debate had its lively moments, but there were no knock out punches, and I very much doubt that it will move many votes in Quebec or in the rest of Canada.
Tom Mulcair survived the combined assault of his opponents, Justin Trudeau more than held his own, Elizabeth May did surprisingly well considering she doesn't speak French as well as the others. And Gilles Duceppe started strong and quickly faded.
But what the debate did show conclusively is that Stephen Harper is determined to use the niqab issue to try to win the election.
