The meaning of the sudden NDP surge is this: It's a grasping for hope in a dispiriting situation in which all of the likely outcomes are bad. That grasping comes from within the majority -- from the 60 per cent or more who see Stephen Harper as a negative, anti-democratic force.

Above all, it raises the question of how to ultimately bring together this loose centre into one, uniting not only Liberals and New Democrats, but disaffected Progressive Conservatives and both federalists and soft nationalists in Quebec, perhaps leaving the Greens in the left-wing slot the NDP used to occupy.

Who's complaining about polling now? The polls have been wild and crazy, but they're revolutionizing this election. So what's the message in the madness?

First and foremost, hats off to Quebec. She just can't seem to help herself. It looks like she just might rescue Canada -- again.

Remember, last time out it was Quebec that mostly saved us from a 2008 Harper majority. And it happened poetically. Francophone artists went viral and turned the tide. Once Quebeckers realized that Harper scoffed at the arts, a worrisome flirtation was off and the Conservatives stalled at the same 10 seats they got in 2006. The rest is history.

The flurry of polls last week [See here and here] suggesting an unprecedented surge in support for the NDP has stunned political commentators and given progressives something to cheer about for the first time in ages. Paradoxically, it comes at a time in the election when it seemed that no matter how many sleazy scandals hit the Conservatives they stayed right on the edge of majority territory.

It's often said that Stephen Harper is playing with the politics of fear. But even more profoundly, political players on both sides are lulling Canadians to sleep with an utterly false sense of security.

Harper likes to boast about the country's great economic fundamentals, but anyone who has looked at the price of gas today knows that we are definitely not okay.

We're already feeling energy inflation ramping up with every trip to the grocery store, and there's no ceiling in sight.

Republican-inspired populist politics is going places we compassionate Canadians never imagined.

And Mayor Rob Ford is showing how it's done. Five months after sweeping into office, Ford has cleaned out the city's cupboards, and soon the furniture will be out the door.