I was playing pool with some buddies in Carl's shed in Tusket on Tuesday night, when Gordon said, "What's that rumble -- is that a big truck?" We checked the window. No truck.

A few minutes later, Eddie got a call. His face went stiff and his eyes darted. The Tusket bridge, a half kilometre upstream, had collapsed.

What!? When we arrived, there was a lineup of cars plus a large flatbed truck with a road machine on board -- all within minutes of crossing the ill-fated structure.

The buzz lately is about the new Conservative leader, Jamie Baillie, who by all accounts is a sound fellow. What are the prospects for him and his party? With three parties jockeying, asking that question is almost the same as asking where our politics are going generally -- and notably how the NDP government is doing, its success or failure determining how the opposition will do.

We should ban these outside energy experts. Every time one shows up at a Utility and Review Board hearing to remind us how muddled our energy practices are, it makes us look bad. This time it's about the planned $200-million-plus wood-burning power plant at Port Hawkesbury.

As if it wasn't enough that the project will devastate the forest even more than it already is, that burning wood is apparently as bad as burning coal and won't reduce greenhouse gas, and that a similar plant in New England was apparently built for half the projected cost, along comes U.S. renewable energy consultant Barry Sheingold to tell us that Nova Scotia Power Inc. hasn't done its homework on the project.

The Liberals win byelections in Yarmouth and Glace Bay with bright young fellows. Is something going on in our politics? The Liberals on the march, perhaps, against a fading NDP?

Let's inquire.

It is a marvellous victory for the Liberals -- especially in Glace Bay where logic would have dictated that they'd be in bad odour because a sitting Liberal resigned amid scandal. It's especially good for Stephen McNeil, whose iffy status as leader is firmed up.

But I wonder. How long is the idealism of two bright young fellows going to last sitting around with some of the old horses in the Liberal caucus? Will they end up like most of them -- locally strong MLAs in a party that doesn't really have a core?