Almost every day, with each successive poll, Stephen Harper is turning Canada's political landscape upside down.
Canadians are mostly liberal, with progressive social views, who think budgets should be balanced and that US President George W. Bush was wrong about Iraq. Nevertheless, many voters seem ready to elect as their national leader a man who believes none of these things.
How has this happened?
Canada's fragmented political system has five significant parties that are all over the ideological map. One party can theoretically form a government with as little as a third of the popular vote. Also, voters are restless after the scandals and blunders of 11 years of Liberal Party rule.
But Mr Harper deserves a lot of credit. This is his first national campaign as head of a new Conservative Party and he has surprised many with his leadership style. Low-key, avoiding mistakes and reining in his more extreme colleagues, he has crept ahead of the more experienced Prime Minister Paul Martin in the polls.
With some adroit sleight-of-hand, Mr Harper has also advanced his party's right-of-centre agenda. The latest move came this week when he said Canada's hate-crime laws may need to be changed. Mr Harper never used the 'h' word, but the changes would make it easier for church and 'family values' groups to criticise homosexuality and same-sex marriages.