Quick now, what do Kim Campbell -- who served as prime minister briefly in 1993, and led her party to its biggest defeat ever -- and Stephen Harper have in common?

Well, aside from the fact that they are both nominally "Conservative," they both seem to believe, as Campbell put it during her disastrous 1993 campaign, "an election campaign is no time to discuss serious issues."

Saying that, during an election campaign, cost Campbell dearly.

But quietly following that precept during the last campaign allowed Harper to avoid a difficult discussion of his plans for Canada's pension system.

How will the next generation of seniors pay for health care if Republicans privatize Medicare? The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) suggests some options in a darkly funny ad featuring a grandfatherly gentleman mowing lawns and stripping for extra cash. The ad will run in 24 GOP-controlled swing districts, Suzy Khimm reports for Mother Jones.

The Republicans are poised to unveil a model budget on Tuesday that would effectively end Medicare by privatizing it, Steve Benen reports in the Washington Monthly. House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan (R-WI) is touting the budget as a strategy to reduce the national debt.

Ryan's plan would turn Medicare from a single-payer system to a "premium support" system. "Premium support" is a euphemism for the government giving up to $15,000 per person, per year, to insurance companies to defray the cost of a health insurance policy.