So far, this has been a one-party campaign

Among

Philippe Couillard’s many interests is Napoleon and his era.

And yet, in the campaign for the April 7 Quebec general election, the Liberal leader has ignored a well-known piece of strategic advice from Napoleon for politicians as well as generals:

When the enemy is destroying himself, never interfere.

With Pauline Marois apparently unable to stop herself from driving former Coalition Avenir Québec supporters toward the Liberals with talk of sovereignty, Couillard rode to her rescue by galloping into the federalist mire of constitutional reform.

In another of his patented, 48-hour “Philippe-flops,” Couillard took three different positions on that issue be- tween Friday and Sunday.

First he said that, as premier, he would tour the other provinces to try to interest his counterparts in formally recognizing Quebec in the Constitution as a “distinct society,” a clause in the longdead Meech Lake Accord.

Then he said he would only discuss the Constitution with the other premiers if they asked him about it.

And finally he just gave up and said the Constitution is not a priority for him, and anyway, his position is the same as that of the CAQ — his party’s main competition for votes.

Couillard’s inexperience as a leader is no excuse for his being unprepared to stick to an answer to a question that was bound to come up.

So far, his campaign has been ineffectual, and if the Liberals have overtaken the PQ in the polls, it’s not because of anything they’ve done. Rather, it’s because even though Marois is the most experienced party leader, her campaign has been even worse.

It has really been a oneparty campaign. Pierre Karl Péladeau’s raised-fist announcement on March 9 of his PQ candidacy “to make Quebec a country” caused so much excitement that the PQ forgot its campaign strategy and started talking about sovereignty, at the risk of losing non-sovereignist support. In effect, it started campaigning against itself.

If the PQ has had any other adversary that has been effective, it’s the media — not because their coverage has been unfair, but because the reporters following Marois’s campaign tour have kept asking her about sovereignty instead of her announcement of the day.

It’s also the media that kept asking Couillard about constitutional reform, for the same reason: Journalists don’t want to be mere mouthpieces, so they ask politicians about things the politicians would rather not talk about.

So, for political strategists, this campaign has been an argument for restricting media access to party leaders in order to gain control over their campaign messages.

On Wednesday, earlier in the campaign than expected, the PQ launched a new offensive on its popular “values” charter proposal.

It looked like a panicky reaction to the publication the day before of the first poll results of the campaign putting the Liberals ahead of the PQ in overall popularity.

But it may also have been an attempt to get the media to change the subject from sovereignty to something else that interests them.

On Thursday evening, in the first of two televised campaign debates a week apart, the four main party leaders will have an opportunity to speak directly to voters on a variety of issues instead of through the media filter.

Marois is the most experienced debater, but as the incumbent premier, she has a record to defend.

This will be Couillard’s first debate, so he may benefit from both curiosity and low expectations.

And François Legault of the CAQ and Françoise David of Québec solidaire will be on an equal footing with the leaders of the larger parties.

So for an evening, at least, attention will be on more than one issue, and on more than the one party that has been campaigning against itself.