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This trundling campaign turned a corner on Wednesday night and suddenly found a new gear.

We’d just completed the two hour pre-game show on TVA. We walked to the other end of the building and sat down to watch the debate which was just starting. It was also just ending for Andrew Scheer.

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After nailing his engaging and well-scripted entrance interview, Scheer showed up to the actual debate unprepared to answer the most obvious question on abortion. In the brief minutes it’d taken us to un-mic and make it down the hallway, we turned on our screen to see a Justin Trudeau who was in full rhetorical flight and a nervous and sputtering Andrew Scheer.

Trudeau’s smug smile after his performance spoke volumes. He’d unmasked his rival, who’d refused or otherwise failed to say what his personal view was on a woman’s right to choose.

The problem for Trudeau, as we learned 36 hours later, is that he’s stated exactly the same position as Scheer in the recent past. His spiralling explanation was similar to the one he gave when the blackface scandal erupted: “That was the old Justin, now I get it.” Then he planted a tree to save the planet… except there was still a little splainin’ to do about his two campaign planes.