TORONTO–As MPs, ministers, and their staff return to the Hill members of the press gallery are scrambling to find fresh clues and signs that point to an inevitable election campaign. Parliament Hill watchers have pointed to the appearance of campaign buses, surplus announcements, and increasing numbers of nomination meetings in local ridings. But the PMO and other party leaders have played down such campaign preparations in the past, reminding Canadians of the "new normal" in Ottawa: governing-as-campaigning. In other words, the more predicable change in political seasons has given way to a permanent electioneering of sorts. It's a bit like global warming, where Ottawa's political climate has come to resemble Aruba, rather than say Moose Jaw. In Aruba, it's sunny and hot 365 days a year (with a steady blowing wind).

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