OTTAWA - Anybody following this election closely might be struck by the reactionary tone of most of the messaging. Each party is eager to point out how foolish other candidates' proposals and figures are - yet when it comes to concrete suggestions we are left hanging.

This may be familiar to seasoned veterans of the Canadian political scene. In the last election, the major parties withheld their platforms until very late in the campaign. It kind of makes you wonder if our politicians have much respect for taxpayers. How are we meant to form complete opinions without complete information?

In this campaign, we see a similar trend - although the platforms should all be released shortly. Messaging is very important in this campaign - and it is being tightly controlled.

This is precisely why it was so disappointing to watch Stephen Harper's team refuse to answer more than 5 media questions at each function last week. A campaign, to give a real glimpse of the leader, must involve more personability than that. For a leader who has gone to great lengths over the past six years to revamp his image and soften his appeal, this was a disappointment.

Ignatieff's camp has not fared much better - and he has a higher hill to climb. Ignatieff has opted to forego the use of a teleprompter and speak more off the cuff. This is a positive step at communicating with taxpayers, but, as a professor, his tendencies are to ramble on too long without really saying very much.

The key is to let citizens and taxpayers in - no matter how carefully sculpted one's message is, if a leader fails to do this they will not be met with success. Taxpayers are tired of being spoken 'at'.