The nation is rallying to the New Democrats. Jack Layton's campaign is on fire. His issues -- working with others in Parliament to fix Ottawa; economic security and a break for middle class families; better public health care; protecting the environment -- are exactly what the people want.

Meanwhile the Liberal campaign is in flames, losing momentum rapidly. The Conservatives are only inching along. How do we know this?

So what's new with the polls?

The release of a reputable Environics poll yesterday shows Ed Stelmach's Alberta Conservatives are still ahead of the Wildrose Alliance party, if only by a nose.

Does this mean Alberta's media -- which loves a horserace, even at the expense of accuracy -- will stop saying the far-right Alliance led by former journalist Danielle Smith "is leading the government in public opinion polls across the province"? After all, until yesterday there'd only been one poll that put the Wildrose Alliance is in the lead, and it was based on controversial methodology.

I confess to being a bit obsessive about polls and pour over as many as I can especially regarding federal politics and the issues that drive it. For a number of years I relied on -- and lauded -- one particular pollster, Nik Nanos. There were two reasons for this: one, he was uncannily accurate leading up to elections and predicting their results, and two, he wasn't trying to make the corporate world or the Harper Conservatives look good which some pollsters, like Strategic Counsel, seem to do a lot. He wasn't disengaged from the fight for the country and his polling questions often reflected that.

In Edinburgh this weekend, NATO delegates attending a meeting in the city were reported among some one thousand who rallied against NATO's war in Afghanistan:

Among those addressing the demonstration was Joan Humphreys, whose grandson, a British soldier, was killed in Afghanistan in August.

"I would like the troops to come home walking -- not on stretchers or in body bags," she said.

John Cannell, of the Stop the War Coalition, which helped to organise the march, added: "The only solution has to be a political one, but we need the troops out now to make the space for that political solution." ... (link)