Day 9: A bit of advice for all five leaders as we head into week 2

Stéphane Dion: He must find a way to hone his message regarding the Green Shift plan. At the moment, not only does he have conflicting messages being touted internally by members of his own caucus, the tax side seems to be dominating in the press over the revenue side of the policy. If he is unable to change this and explain to Canadians in the next two weeks why this policy would be good for the economy (and the environment for that matter), his campaign will be dead in the water as left-wing and centrist voters will start peeling off into the hands of the NDP and Greens. To put it mildly, he has very little time to pull it together.

Jack Layton: Simple. Keep doing what you've been doing. Hey, something must be working for Jack and the NDP as the Tories have now refocused and set their sights on his party.

Gilles Duceppe: The theme coming out of the Quebec press this morning seems to be that the Bloc have lost their raison d’être (sense of purpose). If Duceppe doesn't want to see his movement reduced to a rump on the 12th, he has to find a way to separate himself (and his party) from the Tories. And asking federalists to support his party and offering to campaign with the Tories on Quebec nationhood just won't get it done. To tell you the truth, it will only speed up the process of more federalists joining lapsed sovereignists in the Tory camp.

Update: And for the record, this wasn't the kind of separation I had in mind: "Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe has taken umbrage because a candidate for the Conservative Party, Nicole Charbonneau Barron, running in the South Shore Montreal riding of St Bruno-St Hubert, is a member of Opus Dei, a personal prelature within the Catholic church. [...] Attempting to whip up fears that the Tories want to take away a woman’s right to choose, Duceppe complained that “those people are against a lot of things that are generally accepted in Quebec." Those people? Wow, I guess in the world of Gilles Duceppe, desperate times require desperate measures. What's that saying? All is fair in love and war campaigns.

Elizabeth May: You got serious momentum after fighting hard to be included in the debates. However, since then, your campaign has been direction less, and quite frankly, open to attack. Time to get back up, dust yourself off, stop explaining and start talking about the issues that matter to Canadians. Most notably climate change and the economy.

Stephen Harper: Get control of your war room. Other then that, make this week about policy just like you did in December of 2005. Roll 'em out one by one and control the agenda.

Previous Quick Hitters: Day 7 & 8, Day 6, Day 5, Day 4, Day 3, Day 2