Have a look at the web sites of the three main federal parties and you will see some marked contrasts not only in political philosophy, but in personality and style.

The Conservatives are – not surprisingly – heavily into attack and simple, bumper-sticker messages.

You open their site and, bang, there’s the cheesy and amateurish "Hallowe’en" graphic of "Thomas Mulcair’s [obviously scary] NDP."

The Harper government is waging war on Canada’s freshwater.

We didn’t start with a strong record. Our national water laws are out-dated, we don’t properly enforce the ones we have and we chronically underfund source water and watershed protection. And consecutive governments refuse to consider the effect on freshwater when creating economic, industrial, energy or trade policies.

Yet the Harper government appears intent on systematically dismantling the few protections that have been put in place at the federal level to protect our freshwater heritage.

Dear world, we are really sorry about Harper. 

Stephen Harper is at Camp David today for the start of the G8 summit. The two-day meeting of leaders of some of the world's most powerful economies will be followed by a gathering in Chicago of NATO, an alliance of the world's most powerful militaries.

This a big stage for Harper, and he uses these international summits to project his preferred image of a Canada that is unapologetically aggressive and militaristic.