Conservative Leader Stephen Harper wanted a campaign focused on the economy.

This week was the closest he's come to getting it, thanks to Thursday night's debate on the economy hosted by the Globe and Mail in Calgary.

While the final ratings for the debate aren't in, the replay available on YouTube had hit 320,000 views by 5 p.m. ET Friday.

For those who couldn't spare time for a full viewing — or grew impatient with the endless pre-game punditry — what matters now is how it's sliced and diced and spun.

This week's debate taught us a bit about what the parties have learned since we last saw the three leaders on the same stage six weeks ago — and where the campaign story lines are at.

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair took a serious, studied and calm approach to Thursday night. His much-discussed smile, found to be distracting during the Maclean's debate, was dialled back, replaced by a sometimes snarky seriousness in his still-safe-and-front-running game plan.

To the left of him Thursday night (and some days in the campaign as well), Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau did not appear to significantly recalibrate his debating style for the second outing. And why would he? His aggressive, interruption-heavy Maclean's performance gave him a polling bump. So he doubled down with content to match his disruptive style, saying the fix he was proposing for the economy was urgent, unlike his slower opponents.

Which brings us back to Harper, on home turf geographically and politically and fighting to remain steady in not only message, but voice. His key line echoed his much discussed "I'm not perfect" ad: "I've never said things are great," he said, but where else would you have wanted to be in tough economic times than Canada?

This debate was a clear win for zinger-seekers: here all leaders performed admirably, delivering plenty of sound bites, pre-written or otherwise.

The real loss? Not, apparently, the left out Elizabeth May, who attracted a crowd in person and online for her offsite, alternate rebuttal event.

But what about those wanting to hear about topics not coming up in the theme-limited English debates? (The next one, the Sept. 28 Munk Debates event on foreign policy, is on, by the way, just never mind that bilingual kerfuffle.) Trudeau squeezed a reference to one example, First Nations issues, near the end Thursday, but the list is much longer than that.

On Wednesday, the NDP held a pre-debate press conference to lay out a fiscal plan, an attempt to push back against critics who say it can't deliver balanced books.

Reporters have pushed everyone for solid figures. The spreadsheet on offer from the New Democrats goes further than the backgrounders provided by Liberals to date. But for anyone not in government and without access to the real data, the details were thin.

The Conservatives appear somewhat liberated from this costing pressure, partly because their campaign has, on some days, been simply re-emphasizing aspects of the budget they're already executing. On other days, small, micro-targeted announcements aren't on a scale to significantly tip the surplus-deficit balance.

This week's fiscal talk hasn't significantly moved polls yet — although some days the headlines disagreed on who's slightly more ahead in the tight three-way race.

For those wondering, Joe Oliver, the finance minister, is still sticking close to home, without a role on the national campaign.

This week, any talking Harper couldn't do himself went to the Minister of Everything, Jason Kenney.

Despite what Kenney previewed last weekend — more help coming for Syrian refugees — the Conservatives are still punting on beefed-up resettlement efforts.

It's unclear why. (Still coming though, they say.) Security concerns take time to address?

Week seven did continue to tar the reputations and fray the nerves of candidate-vetting teams across the land. It also added Facebook "like-jacking" to the Canadian political vocabulary.

Week seven also offered a few celebrities, at least by Canadian standards, with some signing an environmental manifesto Tuesday. (Conservative detractors dubbed it the #Tommunist Manifesto, in honour of the NDP leader.)

One of the signatories, actor Donald Sutherland, didn't stop there, telling red carpet watchers at the Toronto International Film Festival that Canadians should change their government. (His support for the NDP is decidedly not news, although the actor who once married Tommy Douglas's daughter can't vote himself and doesn't like that one bit.)

Another ex-pat, who, like Sutherland, is annoyed at being barred from his franchise, is making a show of running against Harper in his Calgary riding. That is, apparently, OK by election rules. Just don't try to vote for yourself, eh?

Finally, Harper tried to build some post-debate momentum Friday night with an event featuring one of the most Canadian-est of big name ex-pats, Wayne Gretzky.

Which brings us to the artistic opportunity offered pool cameras in Calgary Thursday morning.

Photographers were rewarded for braving the early morning, near-freezing chill as Trudeau paddled by solo in a canoe.

There was no buckskin jacket (his father's is in the Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough, Ont.), just a whitewater-friendly life-vest. The homage to one of the most famous scenes in Canadian political documentary-making was self-evident.

Mayor Naheed Nenshi's warm reception aside, the fast waters of the Bow River still just aren't friendly.

Nice shot though.

We have a little fun with one of Mulcair's favourite words from the campaign trail thus far.