It may be premature but with nine days to go to the federal election, the picture for the ruling Liberals is beginning to look bleak. The Conservatives are steadily widening the gap in the polls and Liberals themselves are now looking to life after Paul Martin:

With 10 days to go in the federal election campaign, some veteran Liberals are openly conceding defeat, while others have begun quietly laying the groundwork for a leadership contest they believe will "renew" the party.

At the same time, senior Liberals are undertaking what amounts to a pre-election postmortem on Paul Martin's two-year tenure as Prime Minister and the current campaign.

Every single day so far a new Liberal scandal has emerged, while Conservative leader Stephen Harper launches a new initiative each day. To be frank, most of the Conservative platform has a distinct centrist flavor to it, which makes it probably far more palatable for the average Canadian who is becoming increasingly disgusted over Liberal-style politics. And so the Conservatives aren't necessarily winning this election, but the Liberals are losing it big time, something that is compounded by erstwhile fence-sitters endorsing the Conservatives. It's going to be an exciting ride right up to election day and when even Canada's dourest political commentator becomes optimistic, change may really be in the air.