So where do we stand in the election?

The Canadian election is going into hibernation for the Christmas break. Having a break is unusual, but charging through Christmas wouldn't help any party.

The four major parties, the Liberals, Conservatives, New Democrats and Bloc Québécois, have all said they won't be officially campaigning again until January 2. That will leave 3 more weeks, with Election night on January 23.

I wish this campaign hadn't started until after Christmas because I don't think much has happened so far. Polls after the French and English debates showed little change among the electorate.

So let's break it down, party-by-party:

Liberals: Their bad news comes in French, as in Quebec. This is why Stephen Harper should have waited until after the Gomery Report. The losses by the Liberals in Quebec would have been worse after the whole report came out. But the Liberals will lose seats in Quebec again. The potential lost seats will go into the Bloc Québécois column. Right now, only 2 parties have MPs from Quebec: Liberals and Bloc Québécois.

To counter that, Liberals need to gain in Ontario and British Columbia. The issues they fight in Quebec aren't the same elsewhere. And most of their gains are likely to happen in BC, at least for right now.

Conservatives: They look better because everyone looks worse. Ontario is where this party needs to grab seats, but that isn't easy. The economy drives a number of these seats, and financially, things are pretty good. If their Ontario gains are small, that may be countered by losses in BC, though they aren't likely to be all that much. Still, every vote counts especially if you win. And winning for the Conservatives is going to likely be another election soon, like right after the whole Gomery report comes out.

New Democratic Party: The benefactors of the last government, the NDP would love to have a stronger hold on the Liberal Party in a new minority government scenario. But too much of a good thing might not be all that good. If they have too strong a hold, the government could fall apart faster. They got 17 months from the last one. That being said, the NDP ironically is fighting for seats in the same areas as the Conservatives: Ontario and British Columbia. Ideally, the NDP would also pick up seats in Western Canada (outside BC), but that will be much trickier.

Bloc Québécois: For a party that won't win a single seat outside Quebec, it holds a lot of power. It has one simple strategy: pick off Liberal seats in Quebec. And so far, that's working. It holds the rest of the country in its grip because its success has meant a minority government, but it didn't do a good job in the last government of getting what it wants as a result. In a Liberal-NDP coalition, the Bloc was on the outside looking in way too often. Other parties turn to the Bloc in a minority government; the Bloc needs to have a better idea of what to do when that happens.