To Liberals, they’re still Harper’s Tories
Harper’s spectre continues to cast long shadow
Former Liberal prime minister Jean Chrétien once had to calm the “nervous Nellies” in his caucus, who were flustered at the early polling success of new Conservative leader Kim Campbell.
“We don’t need to get excited because they have changed the label on the product … If you have a can of tainted tuna and you change the label, it doesn’t change the product,” he said.
The Trudeau Liberals are banking on Canadians agreeing with their wily former leader.
Environment Minister Catherine McKenna tweeted last weekend the Conservative position on the carbon tax confirms “it’s still Stephen Harper’s Conservative” party.
It’s a line of attack we can expect to see repeated as we get closer to an election. An Angus Reid poll over the weekend suggests it will prove a successful strategy.
If Justin Trudeau defines himself against Harper rather than Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer or NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, he can secure those NDP voters who still have a visceral aversion to the former prime minister.
The poll suggested Trudeau’s government is considered better overall than Harper’s, including being deemed more honest and trustworthy (although it should be noted nearly half of respondents deemed neither good at keeping promises.)
This goes to the heart of Scheer’s problem.
As my press gallery colleague Susan Delacourt joked, the majority of Canadians are like the young couple in the ad designed to introduce Scheer to the voting public — they walk past him without a hint of recognition. Of those who do know him, almost twice as many prefer Trudeau as prime minister, according to Nanos Research.
That’s perhaps why most of the attacks on Trudeau are like mosquito bites.
Scheer spent the first question period of the spring session trying to draw blood on the ethics commissioner’s ruling that Trudeau contravened the Conflict of Interest Act by vacationing on a private island owned by the Aga Khan. The Conservative leader levelled the charge that Trudeau is the first leader of Canada to have violated the act — which is true, even if he is hardly the first to have misbehaved in office (the act only came into effect in 2006, so has only covered Harper and Trudeau).
But the prime minister was unflappable — he said he takes responsibility for his actions, accepts all of the commissioner’s findings and will follow all advice on future vacations.
Scheer started to make the Liberals sweat a bit when he asked the prime minister to repay the $200,000 it cost for security and staff expenses during Trudeau’s “illegal” vacation.
But by that time, the prime minister was warming his seat and government House leader Bardish Chagger was charged with the task of throwing the opposition beagles off the scent — in blatant breach of the convention that leaders’ questions are answered by the leader of the governing party.
There are security costs incurred whenever the prime minister travels, she said. Should they still be paid when he is breaking the law, asked Scheer?
Yet, short of a #MeToo scandal, Trudeau’s trespasses will be forgiven for now. Liberal entitlement may catch up with him eventually, but at this political moment a plurality of Canadians remain enamoured.
Harper’s former campaign manager Tom Flanagan has posited that political attacks are less effective when the target is more esteemed than the source of the attack, which is certainly the case here.
The Angus Reid poll suggested the Harper government retains its standing with voters when it comes to economic leadership. It remains a vulnerability for the Liberals. But short of a precipitous plunge in economic growth and a sharp rise in unemployment in the next 18 months, Scheer is going to have trouble leveraging Harper’s reputation for fiscal competence.
More likely, the association will prove a liability.
Scheer appears convinced a simple re-branding of the Harper Conservatives will suffice. Yet for many of the voters Scheer needs to win, the tuna is tainted and changing the label won’t cut it.