STRUTTING THE VERGE:

PM on the brink: Giddy one minute, sombre the next: the many moods of Paul Martin on the verge of his government's collapse (SHANDA DEZIEL, 11/30/05, McLean's)

It's 3 o'clock, 45 minutes into Question Period in the House of Commons, and Paul Martin leans over to Deputy PM Anne McLellan to say, "I'm going to go." But before he does, they play a couple games of tic-tac-toe -- oblivious to the opposition and their own party droning on. Martin is Xs and McLellan is Os, and the game ends with the PM doubling over in laughter. The two have been goofing around all through QP, waving and motioning to friends in the galleries, as if they're a couple of kids in a school play who've just spotted their families in the audience.

It didn't seem to matter that their government was likely in its last days. Last week, Martin was determined to put on a brave face, one that even edged into arrogance on occasion.

He'd seem to have little to be arrogant about.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 29, 2005 7:37 PM