Jack Layton is making time this week to meet with some drunken sailors.

In Nova Scotia, promoting his party's weekend convention, Layton is visiting Chester Race Week. The NDP Leader is scheduled to arrive at the Chester Yacht Club round 4 p.m., just when the boats are coming back to the dock.

Now years of personal experience tells me that when a racing sailboat hits the dock, the beer begins to flow and quickly. Some may have even started on the way in. So Jack Layton will be glad handing a lot of people who will want to get the party started, and likely not hear why they should vote for his party.

There's a post script to this:

On the last day of the 2004 Election Campaign, Paul Martin dipped his foot in Mahone Bay in front on the Chester Yacht Club. The former Liberal prime minister then campaigned all day and across the country to Vancouver.

Some credit the Martin's work during the last few days of the campaign as being the key to stopping the rise of Layton's NDP. Maybe Layton is trying to recapture that moment for the next time.

— Chris Rands