WHAT HAPPENED WEDNESDAY

Conservative leader Stephen Harper

Stephen Harper was cloistered away Wednesday preparing for Thursday’s leaders’ debate, but wife Laureen Harper was on the campaign trail, speaking briefly to party supporters at the campaign office for Conservative Costas Menegakis in the suburban riding of Richmond Hill. Harper’s family, including his son and daughter, have featured prominently during rallies and media photo ops this week.

NDP leader Tom Mulcair

Mulcair, too, was practising for the debate Wednesday. But the NDP offered a new attack ad to fill the campaign void: a collection of doom-and-gloom business-page headlines superimposed over photos of Stephen Harper, denouncing the Tory economic record. Mulcair has been running through debate preparation sessions with his inner circle at a Montreal hotel all week, surfacing only on Tuesday to take part in a campaign event in the riding of Mount Royal.

Liberal leader Justin Trudeau

Campaign debates feature a heavy dose of boxing metaphors, so it’s hardly surprising that Trudeau, who famously defeated suspended senator Patrick Brazeau in a boxing match in 2012, planned to visit a boxing gym in Toronto Thursday ahead of the debate, television cameras in tow. Meanwhile, his team was active. On Tuesday, Greg Fergus, the Liberal candidate in Hull-Aylmer, told a Frenchlanguage radio interview that while the Liberals would like a balanced budget, they won’t be preoccupied with it while the economy remains fragile. On Wednesday, Fergus explained when he thought a deficit would be warranted. “Wartime, extreme recession,” he said.

Green Party leader Elizabeth May

May spent Wednesday on her own in Toronto ahead of the debate. May’s officials say she prefers to be left alone to study, rather than participate in practice or mock debates like the other leaders.