If politics is sport, than this federal election campaign so far is stuck in pre-season.
The players are on the field going through the motions but only the beat writers and the most dedicated of fans are really paying attention.
Angry Conservative, the man who made headlines and hashtags when he angrily shouted down reporters, is a perfect example. Replace that Doug Ford button with a Jets jersey and he's that fanatic who goes to the draft to boo picks.
Even the candidates will tell you they'd rather be somewhere else. Make no mistake, your guy or girl is at the podium right now throwing beach balls, running drills with no contact.
No one has the stamina to sprint full-speed through this 78-day marathon. Prime Minister Charles Tupper’s term was less time than that.
And just like any major sports league, it's the off-field stuff – in this case the Duffy trial – the average person really reads about before the regular season starts up. In this case, we can probably expect the start of the real campaign season to start just after Labour Day.
You can say that you were too busy reading a party platform on pension reform to care about the Duffy affair. You can say you're more interested in Johnny Manziel's completion percentage against the Bills than Jason Pierre-Paul's Fourth of July or LeSean McCoy's invitations.
If that's the case, you're probably a unicorn. Or a liar.
But “what happens on the campaign trail matters” you might say. Sure, what happens near Election Day does.
We, the electorate, can sometimes have the collective memory of a goldfish though. The things said this week or next might have as much of an impact on Oct. 19 than a pre-season win does toward a championship run.
Maybe that’s even the point.
