LEADERSHIP RACE

There are some acts that play fine as a sideshow, but will never make the Big Top.

And that must be a difficult balance for the players to recognize sometimes.

Think about that in the context of the current Conservative Party of Canada leadership race where, late last week, candidate Peter Mackay issued a video release saying that the federal Liberals’ new gun control measures — put in place after a horrific mass shooting in Nova Scotia — were a political play.

“As a Nova Scotian, I am outraged that Justin Trudeau is using our tragedy to punish law-abiding firearms owners across Canada. As prime minister, I can guarantee to all Canadians that I will never take advantage of a tragedy like this to push a political agenda,” he tweeted, perhaps not noticing that he actually is pushing his own political agenda in the selfsame tweet.

And perhaps he wasn’t noticing something else.

Opposing assault weapon bans is something that may play well to a segment of Canadian voters (and Mackay is probably hoping plays well to Conservative leadership voters), but there is the problem that, under the Big Top, in a survey released Friday, 78 per cent of Canadians want a complete prohibition on the ownership of assault weapons.

Candidate Derek Sloan, meanwhile, was making his own waves, alleging in his campaign material that the country’s chief medical health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, was not, well, Canadian enough: “Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer needs to work for Canada. Not for the WHO or any other foreign entity.”

His slogan is “Conservative — Without Apology,” and, when asked to apologize for his slight against Tam by his own Conservative caucus, Sloan managed only a self-serving excuse.

Sloan’s trying to stoke up others, too, claiming Christians are being discriminated against in Ontario, and vowing to haul Canada out of a host of UN agreements, including environmental agreements (a stand he announced on Earth Day). Sloan may not go very far in the balloting, but, for non-conservative voters, he’s putting his own party in a bad light.

Even Erin O’toole can’t seem to resist citing the usual suspects when trying to rouse support: “Peter Mackay is the liberal media’s preferred candidate. That’s why they keep trying to coronate him. And it is why they keep trying to cover up the truth …”

Obviously, to get a chance at winning the prime minister’s job, you first have to win over enough Conservatives.

But afterwards, you also have to be electable to everyone else.

One of former prime minister Stephen Harper’s talents — love him or hate him — was the fact he managed to tame all the side-show elements enough to land the Big Top.

Right now, with the current candidates, there’s not much sign of that.