The excitement is palpable, inescapable. It's no exaggeration to say that no one can quite recall such exhilaration -- not Trudeaumania, not Obamamania, not the Leafs winning two games in a row. And why not? The Natural Governing Party is on its way back, and not a moment too soon.

The United States might be drowning in debt but it's spending enough on its military-security complex to fix the crisis and save us all from economic Armageddon. There are priorities, after all.

The world is a veritable cornucopia of riches for those of us professing the pessimists' faith. Nary a day goes by without a thousand new proofs that the world is going to hell in a hand-basket. After all, since the very emergence of our species -- somewhere between 120,000 and 200,000 years ago, if you're a scientist, or 6,000 years if you're a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination -- humans have been in conflict with each other and have chosen (or have evolved) to resolve many such conflicts violently. Think William Golding's Lord of the Flies, the pessimists' bible. Think Stephen Harper's egregious crime legislation.

Can leadership candidates ever not hate each other? At the risk of giving the punch line away too early and spoiling the entire column, the answer is "probably not." It's the old story of civil wars being the most vicious, of the implacable hatred between cherished comrades when they fall out, of family rifts and separated couples poisoning their kids' minds about each other.

In his masterpiece Catch-22, Joseph Heller describes the hostility of several American offices to an ordinary G.I. Joe:

In a bold initiative to continue making conservative values Canadian values, this column can breathlessly reveal that Stephen Harper has come up with his masterstroke. When future historians look back on the Harper years, they may well consider this his most sublime move ever.

Has the revolution finally arrived?

Chances are you hadn't heard of the Occupy Wall Street movement three weeks ago, when a few hundred mostly 20- and 30-something activists first occupied a park in Manhattan to protest corporate greed and corrupt party politics. For as long as they could get away with it, the corporate media greeted the occupation of the heart of global financial power with an information blackout. Many suspected, not unreasonably, that the occupiers would lose momentum and the movement would simply fizzle out and die.

Don't be fooled by all the analysts. Dalton McGuinty is king of Ontario. Whether or not he finally gets the magic 54 seats required for a formal majority, the province is his. With far and away the most seats and with a slim lead in the popular vote, why does he have to heed anything the NDP or Conservatives want?

How can he be defeated? Is there an alternative grouping that could demand to govern? Could the Hudak and Horwath forces unite to support a Tim Hudak government? Could they even dream of joining in a no-confidence motion that would force another election? All scenarios other than Mr. McGuinty ruling exactly as if he had a majority are out of the question.

Despite all the public posturing by Messrs. McGuinty and Hudak, you can't believe a word either is uttering about what happens after Thursday night. The Liberal Leader can insist from now to doomsday that he won't contemplate any deal at all with the NDP, but he's blowing smoke. If he wants to stay premier, he won't have a choice. There will be a minority government -- have I ever been wrong? -- with the Grits and Progressive Conservatives neck and neck. So both will need Andrea Horwath and the NDP if they are to govern for any time at all.

There will be no Israeli-Palestinian spring. At the United Nations, Israel's closest, most reliable allies are once again assuring the nation a future of isolation, insecurity, irreconcilable internal division, international condemnation and endless conflict. For the people of Israel, a life of perpetual anxiety is assured. As my family used to put it, is this good for the Jews?

It was never a perfect marriage -- how many are? -- but times change and romance fades.

When the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation was transformed into the New Democratic Party in 1961, the labour movement was a full partner. Well, let me re-phrase that with much-needed precision: Most of the leaders of Canadian unions were onside, but neither then nor since have they been able to persuade anything like a majority of their members to support the NDP.