My colleague Bill Doskoch, visiting the land of the free for Christmas, writes that he had a little trouble figuring out that the Deputy Prime Minister was, in fact, running under the Liberal banner.
But if you think Anne McLellan is trying to tone down the fact that she's a running as a Liberal an Alberta, how about Paul Steckle (left), the MP for the southwestern Ontario riding of Huron-Bruce? Try and find anything that says Liberal on his Web site. (You can but you'll have to dig a bit.) Steckle is definitely not your Allan Rock-type of Liberal. Last Christmas, for example, he sent around Christmas cards which showed him and his family wearing camouflage gear and holding on to rifles. He was among the three dozen or so Liberals who voted against own government's bill which legalized same-sex marriage. He'd your small-c Liberal.
Steckle's and McLellan's de-emphasis on the idea of being a Liberal are not unique in this campaign.
Many Liberal candidates — incumbent MPs in particular — I've talked to were thrilled to put up lawn signs and so on that advertised their connection to “Team Martin” for the 2004 campaign but this time around, a lot of them are saying that they're just sticking to signs that have their own name on them and counting on their own good reputation in their towns and cities to see them through on January 23.