Bob Rae is best guy for the job. He's a Rhode scholar, a very skilled communicator and he can draw enough of the NDP support to all but eliminate the NDP. And unlike Harper, he's smart enough to position himself in the center and draw in moderate conservatives and liberals alike. Of course he has his baggage, but in all fairness to him David Peterson called an early election because he knew a recession was on the way and Ontario's finances were a mess, and Rae inherited that mess. Aside from that, Rae has had a very succesful life away from politics. All Harper has done outside of politics is hide behind his computer and send nasty emails on behalf of extreme right wing conservatives.
Harper, though a straight shooter is a stuborn sucky baby who goes to sleep at night wishing he was American. Alot of his strategy is going to back fire unless he learns to sugar coat his policies, but he seems to stubborn to do that. When you consider the seriousness of the sponsorship scandal, anybody have won the last election in Canada. The liberals all but handed Harper the election and all he could do was get a slim minority? If you ask me that's pathetic. In the end Harper will lose regardless of who's leading the liberals. Canada just wasn't made for him.