Campaign coffee is never any good. Ever. It's always thin and watery and bitter.

For the past few days, reporters aboard the NDP plane have been hurting for a good cup of joe. Every time the campaign bus passed by a Starbucks, heads would turn, mouths would water and more than one reporter would beg, "can we stop?"

So imagine the delight, when reporters traveling with the NDP learned there was a Starbucks right across the street from their Montreal hotel.

Many happy hacks rolled across the street in the morning to order their Grande Corse. And later in the day, as the NDP bus was loading up for departure, another small group made a dash across the road to grab a cup to go.

Richard Brennan was among them. Brennan's the president of the Parliamentary Press Gallery. He's also a reporter for The Toronto Star.

Brennan appears to be in his mid-50s. He has short grey hair that, it must be said, is a little thin on top. He probably wouldn't mind me saying he's a little on the stocky side. And he has a moustache.

Just the other day Brennan was joking there's only a couple of men in 0ttawa who wear a moustache, himself and Jack Layton.

Now about Jack. Throughout the NDP tour's stop in Montreal a big orange bus with Jack Layton's giant smiling moustached visage splashed across the side, was parked on the street — right across the road from the Starbucks.

So it was fairly easy for Brennan to scoot across the street to order his cafe.

The young woman behind the counter stared at him.

"Are you Jack Layton," she asked?

"No," Brennan sighed. "I'm not Jack Layton. I'm a reporter."

"I just had to ask because I've never met him and his face is right there on the side of that bus," she said.

Message to Jack: You should stop by that Starbucks. There's someone who'd like to say hello.

— James Cudmore