As the last week of the election campaign wound down, both Conservative leader Stephen Harper and Prime Minister Paul Martin found themselves doing damage control.

Harper stepped into the first serious miscue in the campaign by wandering off message and taking a stroll back into Reform party policy by proclaiming that some Liberal-appointed judges are practising activism.

Those remarks have widely interpreted as an assault on the traditional nonpartisan system of judicial appointments as well as a hint the Conservatives are planning to recast the Supreme Court within a right-wing frame. They also earned Harper a rebuke on editorial pages for showing poor leadership and questionable judgment.

But that misstep was quickly overshadowed by a blunder by the Liberals.

Up until Wednesday, Martin was enjoying his first week of error-free ball until labour leader Buzz Hargrove, a leading supporter, speculated in the prime minister’s presence at a campaign stop how Conservative success in Quebec will boost separatism. Martin was forced to defend Harper as a patriot.

In the polls, the Liberals have been showing signs of recovery in Ontario while the Conservatives continue to emerge as the leading threat to the Bloc Quebecois. Some polls show the Bloc at its lowest point since the campaign began because of the Conservative breakthrough.

Most pollsters, with Strategic Counsel a notable exception, are reporting the Tory lead over the Liberals slightly narrowed. SES Research, the only polling firm to spot the last-minute recovery of the Liberals in 2004, said the Conservative lead over the Liberals stood at 36.9% versus 31.5% as of Tuesday compared to nine points a week earlier.

In Ontario, both parties are neck and neck as the Liberals battle to hang on to Toronto.

The Tories appear now headed for a majority. However, that may be the least of the Liberal’s problems. The Liberals are now in danger of coming out of this election with little in the way of a power base.

This may be why the Quebec media have dubbed the Liberal campaign as the “save the furniture’’ campaign.

With the Tory breakthrough in Ontario and the Conservatives now collecting federalist votes in Quebec that used to go to the Liberals, Canada’s natural governing party has seen its power base reduced to most of Toronto, the island of Montreal and much of Atlantic Canada.

The other leading casualty of this campaign has been fiscal conservatism. No party has been advocating spending restraint. The Conference Board of Canada backtracked a bit on the Conservative platform, saying it only said it was affordable before the Tories slipped in a couple of big-spending items — guaranteed wait times and a new fiscal transfer deal with the provinces.