Conservative candidate Peter MacKay and Green Party Leader Elizabeth May squared off in a debate Monday, for the first time in their contested Nova Scotia riding.

Stock market mayhem, a tumbling loonie and fears of looming recession are combining to produce an unexpectedly tight race as the federal election campaign thunders down the home stretch.

Asian markets showed signs of life Tuesday as investors cheered a big interest rate cut by the Australian central bank aimed at alleviating the unfolding global credit crisis that has battered global markets.

Child poverty in Canada is at the same level as it was in 1989, the year Parliament pledged to eliminate the problem by 2000, says a quality-of-life report card released Tuesday.

Ask a pollster, an academic and two political organizers whether polls drive voter preference or if voter preference drives the polls and you invariably arrive at conflicting views of how such tallies will effect ballot casting on Oct. 14.