- 5

Number of questions Prime Minister Stephen Harper permits reporters on the campaign trail. (Source)

- $38.7 million

What the Conservative government has spent on media monitoring since 2008. (Source) 

- $46.5 million

Last week, there was a story out of Sydney Mines in which a man, Ernie Young, 41, was beaten, stabbed and run over in his own yard (he survived) by four youths who had come to confront his 17-year-old son. By the time it was over, some 20 more youths had shown up, "throwing things, smashing bottles, swinging," according to a neighbour, who added that the "the kids are ... mega mega out of control." The issue is drugs.

One evening a couple of weeks before that, I was going home, heading for the causeway from Ste.-Anne-du-Ruisseau to Belleville, Yarmouth County, on Eel Lake Road, only to find it blocked and police lights flashing along its full length as far as my house on the other side, that was within the blockaded investigation scene.